Yahoo acquires team behind Snapchat competitor Blink

Blink, which was spun out of friend locator Kismet last year, will be shut down

(Updated with comment from Yahoo)

For the second time in less than a week, Snapchat is saying goodbye to one of its competitors: first it was Facebook's Poke app, which was shut down over the weekend, and now self destruct messaging app Blink is also saying goodbye after only a year in existence.

Don't feel too bad for the team behind Blink, though, because this is not bad news for them at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. You see, Blink has been purchased by Yahoo, the company has revealed in a blog post.

While no terms of the deal were disclosed, it has been confirmed to VatorNews by a person close to the deal that all seven of the Blink team members, including founders Kevin Stephens and Michelle Norgan, will be coming to work at Yahoo.

"We built Blink because we believe everyone should be free to show the same honesty and spontaneity in their online conversations as they can in person," Stephens and Norgan, wrote in the post. "We look forward to the possibilities that will come from bringing the Blink vision to Yahoo."

Blink was launched in April of 2013, as a spin-off of Kismet, an app for finding people nearby. It allowed users to send text messages which they would then set to expire after 10 seconds.

"Facebook taught us that you have to think before you write," Norgan told us at the time of Blink's debut. "The fact that I know that three or four years down the road that someone can go look at that Wall post, it kills the spontaneity and genuineness of conversations. It takes some joy of personality in real life."

Kismet, which won the People's Choice award at Splash SF in 2012 and was backed by AngelPad, Triple Point and NEA, is also being shut down, it has been confirmed to VatorNews.

As for what exactly the team will be working on when they get to Yahoo. It seems unlikely that Yahoo has any interest in a Snapchat-like service, though, or else it would have kept Blink alive and simply rolled it into its existing services.

A Yahoo spokesperson told VatorNews that the team "will focus on smart communication products."

The purchase of Blink continues Yahoo's acquisitions spree started by Marissa Mayer after she became CEO nearly two years ago. Last year the company bought 27 companies, and while not quite on that pace in 2014, Yahoo's has still already made nine acquisitions this year so far. 

The company also bought Aviate, a replacement Android home screen launcher, mobile marketing startup Sparq and virtual gaming company Cloud Party. Yahoo also bought enterprise app studio Tomfoolery and Incredible Labs, the company behind mobile personal assistant app Donna. It also picked up Wander, the company behind blogging app Days.

Yahoo bought Distill, a provider of a video interviewing and scheduling service for recruiters, in February and, most recently purchased visual identity platform Vizify in March.

(Image source: blinkapp.co)