Yahoo acqui-hires five ex-Googlers through Stamped acquisition

Yahoo just revealed on its corporate blog that it bought New York-based startup Stamped.

Stamped launched initially as an iOS app last fall. It allows users to recommend movies, music, restaurants, etc., to friends with a literal stamp of approval. It even offers recommendations by celebrities and friends via a social graph.

So, how is the buyout Google related? Well, according to Crunchbase, as CNET first noted, Stamped raised roughly $3 million in investments from Google Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and pop star Justin Bieber. Moreover, according to Mashable, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer apparently wanted the app for its nine-member staff that includes five ex-Google employees.

Another image is below.

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The Stamped team elaborated on the acqui-hire matter through the company’s website:

As for our team’s next step, we couldn’t be more thrilled to join Yahoo!. As a team of mostly former Googlers, we’ve all worked with and are big fans of Marissa. So when an opportunity arose to become a part of the team at Yahoo!, we jumped. As entrepreneurs, it’s never easy to walk away from something you built from the ground up, but the folks we met with at Yahoo! are simply top-notch and we’re thrilled to be joining them!

Senior Vice President of Emerging Products Adam Cahan also commented in Yahoo’s announcing blog post:

Robby, Kevin, Paul, Bart and the entire Stamped team are a natural fit for us. Their experience building fun, useful, personalized mobile products aligns well with Yahoo!’s vision to create the best everyday mobile experience for our users. They will be a great asset as we expand Yahoo!’s mobile efforts and build a world-class mobile development organization.

A Yahoo spokesperson confirmed to CNET that Yahoo plans to discontinue Stamped.