Yahoo Moves Fast — Real Fast — To Scoop Up IntoNow For $20 - $30 Million
Real Fast — To Scoop Up IntoNow For $20 - $30 Million — This past January, upon seeing a demo of IntoNow, we noted that the media check-in game just changed. Apparently, Yahoo agreed — they've just acquired the company for something in the range of $20 to $30 million, sources with knowledge of the deal tell us.
Context & Ripple Effects
The media check-in race just got its first real exit. A year ago Yahoo was reportedly circling Foursquare at $100 million — talk that never became a deal (Yahoo's Foursquare courtship) — and today sources peg its purchase of IntoNow, whose January demo was seen as changing the media check-in game, at a far more modest $20-30 million. The deal is still sourced rather than announced, so the price band should be read as reported, not confirmed.
The timing matters. On April 20, Yahoo reported a second consecutive quarter of massive search revenue declines, blamed Microsoft's 12% cut of net search revenues and underperforming Microsoft ads as a "headwind," and in March it lost top North American ad sales executive Mitch Spolan. Buying a TV-audio check-in app reads as a move to manufacture engagement on the display side while the search business bleeds.
First-order effects
- Yahoo adds IntoNow's team and its audio-matching TV check-in app for a reported $20-30 million, giving the company a product in the second-screen space roughly a year after its much larger Foursquare approach went nowhere.
- IntoNow's founders and engineers are absorbed into Yahoo mid-flight — the app was months old and growing off its January demo, so the acquisition is as much about the team as the installed base.
Second-order effects
- Rival check-in and second-screen startups now face an acquirer with fresh urgency: with search revenue shrinking two quarters running, Yahoo has a demonstrated willingness to pay for engagement products, which raises the odds other standalone check-in apps become targets rather than independents.
- A TV-sync check-in product hands Yahoo's battered North American ad sales operation — minus Mitch Spolan since March — a television-adjacent targeting pitch it currently lacks.
Third-order effects
- If this becomes the template, media check-in consolidates around portal-scale owners, pushing remaining independents to compete on network partnerships instead of user growth alone.
- More structurally, Yahoo is filling product gaps with sub-$50M team-and-app acquisitions while its core search economics erode under the Microsoft revenue split — an acquisition-led turnaround whose success depends entirely on whether purchased teams retain autonomy inside a company in flux.
The trend: As portal-era search economics deteriorate, large web companies are acquiring young second-screen and check-in apps for talent and engagement rather than paying for category leaders.