SAN FRANCISCO, 5 Aug. (Reuters) -
Yahoo Inc acquired the RockMelt search engine, the portal's latest move to get technology and engineering talent to strengthen its work in social and mobile networks.
Yahoo did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, though a source close to the deal said the price tag was between $50 million and $80 million.
Yahoo will shut down the current RockMelt product in 30 days and integrate the technology into its platform to "deliver new forms of content," a spokeswoman said.
The portal will receive 32 RockMelt employees as part of the deal, including Chief Executive Eric Vishria, who will become Yahoo's vice president of media products, and RockMelt Chief Technology Officer Tim Howes, who will be Yahoo's new vice president of engineering for mobile products, according to the source.
RockMelt, which was launched in 2010, integrates social networking features directly within the browser, allowing users to send Facebook messages and view Twitter quotes. The search engine never gained enough followers to challenge larger search engines like Google Inc's Chrome and Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer.
Over the past year, the company has shifted its efforts to focus strictly on the mobile version of its product.
The deal represents the 21st acquisition of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Most of the deals have been smaller transactions to acquire engineering talent. Yahoo's biggest deal was the $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr in May.
Yahoo is among the world's most popular portals, with hundreds of millions of monthly visitors, but revenue growth has stalled as consumers and advertisers flock to Facebook, Google and other online destinations.
