Yahoo Acquires OnTheAir Video Chat Startup to Increase Mobile Expertise

Yahoo has acquired video chat start up company OnTheAir that would reportedly help Yahoo develop and offer chatting apps for smartphones and tablets. It is only recently that Yahoo purchased another company named Stamped. Yahoo claims to be more impressed with their engineering skills rather than the services they are dealing with. Yahoo Inc.

however declined to disclose the amount for which they bought OnTheAir which is a company based in San Francisco. OnTheAir gained popularity for its online video chat which used to function on a talk show format.

Daniel Hopkins who is one among the employees at OnTheAir had previously worked for Google. Four other employees in OnTheAir have working experience with Apple Inc and ‘Meebo' which is a popular instant messaging service. Adam Cahan, Senior Vice President of Yahoo's Emerging Products and Technology stated that hiring of the most talented thinkers and engineers of mobile products would be a priority for the company in the future.

Out of the 11 employees of the company ‘Stamped' that Yahoo acquired recently, five of them have put in years working with Google Inc. Among them, Marissa Mayer was one of the top most executives and Yahoo offered her the coveted company's CEO position during the middle of July.

The latest acquisition has led the company's stock to advance by 38 cents which is equivalent to 2 percent. Yahoo's stock closed at $18.93. The company is trying to increasingly move towards mobile computing platform with advancements and growing demand for smartphones and tablets. Yahoo Inc will be facing stiff competition from rivals such as Google and Apple Inc in this direction.