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Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million - Webmasters - Nairaland

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Yahoo Buys Summly App From British Teen For $30 Million / Google Pays Yahoo For Ads / Microsoft Offers To Buy Yahoo For $44.6 Billion (2) (3) (4)

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Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by yawatide(f): 11:04am On Mar 26, 2013
This is what we should be doing o! No be to dey charge N5K for website. Something unique. No borrow-borrow...no copy-copy tongue

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-yahoo-summly-daloisio-profile-idUSBRE92P01C20130326


Got a tech idea and want to make a fortune before you're out of your teens? Just do it, is the advice of the London schoolboy who's just sold his smartphone news app to Yahoo for a reported $30 million.

The money is there, just waiting for clever new moves, said 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, who can point to a roster of early backers for his Summly app that includes Yoko Ono and Rupert Murdoch.


"If you have a good idea, or you think there's a gap in the market, just go out and launch it because there are investors across the world right now looking for companies to invest in," he told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Monday.

The terms of the sale, four months after Summly was launched for the iPhone, have not been disclosed and D'Aloisio, who is still studying for school exams while joining Yahoo as its youngest employee, was not saying. But technology blog AllThingsD said Yahoo paid roughly $30 million.

D'Aloisio said he was the majority owner of Summly and would now invest the money from the sale, though his age imposes legal limits for now on his access to it.

"I'm happy with that and working with my parents to go through that whole process," he said.

D'Aloisio, who lives in the prosperous London suburb of Wimbledon, highlights the support of family and school, which gave him time off, but also, critically, the ideas that came with enthusiastic financial backers.

He had first dreamt up the mobile software while revising for a history exam two years ago, going on to create a prototype of the app that distils news stories into chunks of text readable on small smartphone screens.

He was inspired, he said, by the frustrating experience of trawling through Google searches and separate websites to find information when revising for the test.

Trimit was an early version of the app, which is powered by an algorithm that automatically boils down articles to about 400 characters. It caught the eye of Horizons Ventures, a venture capital firm owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, which put in $250,000.

That investment attracted other celebrity backers, among them Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, British broadcaster Stephen Fry, artist Ono, the widow of Beatle John Lennon, and News Corp media mogul Murdoch.

That all added up to maximum publicity when Summly launched in November 2012, but the backers brought more than just cash for an app that has been downloaded close to a million times.

"It's been super-exciting, (the investors) found out about it in 2012 once the original investment from Li Ka-shing had gone public," said D'Aloisio. "They all believed in the idea, but they all offered different experiences to help us out."

His business has worked with around 250 content publishers, he said, such as News Corp's Wall Street Journal. People reading the summaries can easily click through to the full article, driving traffic to newspaper websites.

"The great deal about joining Yahoo is that they have a lot of publishers, they have deals with who we can work with now," D'Aloisio said.

He taught himself to code at age 12 after Apple's App Store was launched, creating several apps including Facemood, a service which analyzed sentiment to determine the moods of Facebook users, and music discovery service SongStumblr.

He has started A-levels - English final school exams - in maths, physics and philosophy, and plans to continue his studies while also working at Yahoo's offices in London. He aims to go to university to study humanities.

Although he has created an app worth millions, D'Aloisio says he is not a stereotyped computer geek.

"I like playing sport," he said. "I'm a bit of a design enthusiast, and like spending time with my girlfriend and mates."

11 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by PGON(m): 11:19am On Mar 26, 2013
....... $30.....

Where is the market in Nigeria.

We need to call attention .....

working on something anyway...
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by miracle4(m): 11:36am On Mar 26, 2013
wow that's laudable
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by talk2hb1(m): 3:04pm On Mar 26, 2013
Great work!!!!
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by abhosts(m): 4:33pm On Mar 26, 2013
Happy for Him. I wonder when we would start having deals like this in Nigeria.
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by iamswizz(m): 5:17pm On Mar 26, 2013
chaiiiiiiii
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Judolisco(m): 5:17pm On Mar 26, 2013
let him do more
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Nobody: 5:20pm On Mar 26, 2013
cool smiley
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by ajos(m): 5:21pm On Mar 26, 2013
small boy don hammer cool cash....many yahoo yahoo guys no fit get dis kind idea,na to dey scam people mumu people theif their cash....i feel u kidbro....
ALL TALENTS ARE NOT EQUAL....

10 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by HectorTroy: 5:22pm On Mar 26, 2013
See small boys o....and I m just sitting here jerking off.

2 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by fittty(m): 5:26pm On Mar 26, 2013
Ok
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by kolamilan(m): 5:27pm On Mar 26, 2013
Happy for him
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by jomek(m): 5:28pm On Mar 26, 2013
Jjjjjj
fittty: Ok
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by momodub: 5:30pm On Mar 26, 2013
nice one
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by sage2(m): 5:31pm On Mar 26, 2013
kini big deal? I am proud of my Owo Epo.
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by djeezy(m): 5:31pm On Mar 26, 2013
WoW.
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by gistme24(m): 5:32pm On Mar 26, 2013
PGON: ....... $30.....

Where is the market in Nigeria.

We need to call attention .....

working on something anyway...

Lots of it! I know someone who is currently negotiating with a major international Online retail store for an app he built as a startup. The deal is worth Millions of Naira. He inspired me to startup on somethign too.
There is always a market for a nice tech product, most especially apps.

1 Like

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Nobody: 5:33pm On Mar 26, 2013
Yahoo I ve an App on Garri processing!

6 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Nobody: 5:33pm On Mar 26, 2013
It proves the age long secret that ideas is what matters and not money.

2 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by niyoni: 5:35pm On Mar 26, 2013
I just watched d guy on CNN. Wow! Very nice!! Thats d developed world for u- they support brilliant ideas and reward genius! Back in Africa, they wuld either kill d young inventor, kill his dream or steal his idea. At best, they wuld offer him a price far below d worth of his invention! My advice to young Nigerian inventors is dis- b smart, b fast, n keep ur dreams secret until u meet d right person/people! Word!!

11 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by vanstanzy(m): 5:38pm On Mar 26, 2013
OMG! We seriously need a good education system in this country to match this feat. sad What? With our shabby education

system, only like 2 percent of Nigerian youths can be this smart. embarassed


This is just great for the youngster, congrats. cheesy cheesy cheesy

4 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Frosti(m): 5:48pm On Mar 26, 2013
They should talk about all the failed ideas that never maid the news.
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by EyesWideOpen(m): 5:49pm On Mar 26, 2013
Good God, I'm










SPEECHLESS!!!
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Francheezy(m): 5:50pm On Mar 26, 2013
*crying*
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Tonero2162: 5:50pm On Mar 26, 2013
Nice one.
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Blackteeth(m): 5:51pm On Mar 26, 2013
17 year old guy. Most young people at that age in Nigeria are only hell bent on obtaining 9 As in ssce.

5 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Nobody: 5:53pm On Mar 26, 2013
Schoolboy has made money more than me in just his first attempt at money making !!!!! What shall I do now to overtake this white boy?? If I put my ........... For sale,Nigerians will not price it well. I must do something quick to enter world record. Let me sip alomo first, I'm sure ideas will pour in.

2 Likes

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Nobody: 5:54pm On Mar 26, 2013
ajos: small boy don hammer cool cash....many yahoo yahoo guys no fit get dis kind idea,na to dey scam people mumu people theif their cash....i feel u kidbro....
ALL TALENTS ARE NOT EQUAL....

na sogrin
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by decode55(m): 5:56pm On Mar 26, 2013
Coooool!
Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by vanstanzy(m): 5:56pm On Mar 26, 2013
Blackteeth: 17 year old guy. Most young people at that age in Nigeria are only hell bent on obtaining 9 As in ssce.

Only because say school don tire them and them need to pass, just to escape. grin

1 Like

Re: Teenager Sells Mobile Startup To Yahoo for $30 Million by Adanyebe(m): 5:56pm On Mar 26, 2013
if you try that in naija u will still remain in the MUD

1 Like

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