Yahoo takes a step toward mobile analytics with Flurry buy

Flurry, the popular mobile analytics and ad platform used by game developers the world over, will be acquired by tech behemoth Yahoo, the two companies announced today. The acquisition is seen as a way for Yahoo to make a bolder step into the mobile space -- a market in which it lags behind its competition. Flurry offers a free analytics platform to mobile developers, including game developers. It also operates an ad network, allowing developers to target users based on those same analytics. According to Flurry's blog post alongside the announcement, 542,000 mobile applications implement the Flurry platform, across 170,000 developers. Not much will change for the company, both Yahoo and Flurry promise: "The Flurry team will remain in its present locations, where their vision, mission, and focus will stay the same," writes Scott Burke, Yahoo's senior vice president of advertising technology. The benefit of the acquisition, he writes, is the addition of "resources to speed up the delivery of platforms that can help developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities." This was echoed by Simon Khalaf, president and CEO of Flurry, who promises that Flurry "will continue to serve the application developer community in the way we always have, only better." Flurry also releases research reports based on the analytics it culls, much like analytics competitor App Annie. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.