India looks like it has netted its third notable startup exit this year, after Yahoo swooped to purchase Bookpad, a one-year-old company that hosts cloud-based documents, according to local media.
Update: Yahoo has confirmed the deal. We’ve included its statement at the bottom of this post.
Economic Times reports that the deal is worth $8.3 million, while Times of India speculates a much higher price of $15 million.
The acquisition — which is still to be confirmed by the US internet giant — would represent Yahoo’s first in India. It comes some nine months after Facebook bought its first startup from India — Little Eye Labs — in a deal worth $10 million-$15 million; Google was also active in January, buying spam-fighting company Impermium.
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Bangalore-based Bookpad will move its staff to Silicon Valley as part of the deal, according to the Economic Times article which cites sources inside the company. While Yahoo remains mum on the deal — we’ve contacted the company to seek confirmation — that didn’t stop the secretary for IT and biotechnology in the state of Karnataka, where Bookpad is based, from jumping in with a statement.
“Getting acquired by Yahoo puts Bangalore on the global startup map. We will do everything it takes to match Silicon Valley and become the world’s favourite startup hub,” said secretary Srivatsa Krishna.
Bookpad is best known for its Docspad product which — Tech in Asia notes — the company says it built to ease issues around viewing and editing content online.
The service is not consumer-facing, instead it integrates into apps and services to enable document embedding and annotation. It supports a range of files types, including Word, Powerpoint, Excel, PDF, ODT, ODP, ODX, ePub 2.0 and image formats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3s_SPeMmeg
Yahoo has been on an unerring mission to acquire small startups during CEO Marissa Mayer’s two year-plus tenure. Under her watch, the company has bought more than 38 startups, most of which have closed their doors to join Yahoo. It isn’t clear whether Bookpad will shut down its products as part of the deal.
Update: Yahoo has confirmed the deal with the following statement provided to TNW, but it has not disclosed the price of the acquisition:
We have acquired Bookpad, the company behind the Docspad product. The team will join our communications organization in Bangalore, where they will work on strengthening the Yahoo Mail experience. We’re excited for the expertise and knowledge that the team brings with them, and can’t wait to get to work collaborating with them.
Headline image via Shutterstock
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