{"id":53835,"date":"2014-10-06T08:31:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T08:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=53835"},"modified":"2014-10-06T08:31:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T08:31:49","slug":"snapchat-yahoo-set-to-invest-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/10\/snapchat-yahoo-set-to-invest-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapchat: Yahoo ‘set to invest millions’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yahoo is close to investing millions of dollars in mobile messaging service Snapchat, which may value the start-up at about $10bn (\u00a36.2bn), reports say.<\/p>\n
Snapchat allows users to send images and videos that “disappear” seconds after being viewed.<\/p>\n
The company is said to have rejected a $3bn takeover offer from Facebook and other tech behemoths, including China’s Alibaba and Tencent groups in recent years.<\/p>\n
Yahoo and Snapchat refused to comment.<\/p>\n
According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo may invest about $20m in Snapchat’s next funding round after cashing in from its stake in e-commerce giant Alibaba.<\/p>\n
In 2005, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang bought a 40% stake in Alibaba for about $1bn. It sold part of that stake during last month’s initial public offering, earning more than $9bn before taxes.<\/p>\n
Online shopping<\/p>\n
Yahoo has been on an acquisition spree under chief executive Marissa Mayer, who has been looking to move it away from its reliance on search and make it more of a content provider.<\/p>\n
Since joining in 2012, Ms Mayer has overseen more than two dozen deals aimed at turning the company around.<\/p>\n
However, she has recently come under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value. The firm has been calling on Yahoo to halt its spending and consider combining with online rival AOL.<\/p>\n
Last week, it bought mobile-chat application MessageMe, which allows users to ping one or many friends on their smartphone using emoticons and stickers.<\/p>\n
Ms Mayer also acquired blogging service Tumblr for about $1bn last year.<\/p>\n
MessageMe has said it will shut down in November, so that its eight-person team can work on mobile products for Yahoo.<\/p>\n
Snapchat was created by a group of students at Stanford University in 2011 and quickly became popular among teens.<\/p>\n