Yahoo is where once promising startups go to wither and die

Yahoo’s growth appears to be in some way dependent on the widespread acquisition and subsequent annihilation of some of the Internet’s most promising startups, and no one can figure out why. ReadWrite reports that since Marissa Mayer took over in July 2012, 31 of 38 startup companies acquired by the search giant have had their services shut down, often to the detriment of users who had begun incorporating those services into their daily lives. 

Another day, another Yahoo acquisition. Yesterday the search giant swiped up the five-man Vizify team, a data visualization startup that turns your social media posts into interactive infographics and videos. It is unclear how much Yahoo paid for Vizify and how the team will fit into the company’s overall strategy—which, for the moment, seems completely random. But this is par for the course at Yahoo. The company has been picking off startups to cobble together a younger, hipper team since CEO Marissa Mayer took the helm in July 2012. In the first two months of 2014, Mayer’s company acquired eight companies, including Aviate, an “intelligent homescreen” for your mobile device; Incredible Labs, the makers of the mobile assistant app Donna; Sparq, a mobile marketing firm; and Tomfoolery, an enterprise application studio.