Yahoo steals back 5 old employees with Jybe acquisition

Yahoo has purchased mobile recommendation startup Jybe today, and along with it a slew of former key employees that previously worked for the company. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

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The recent re-hires — which includes former search VP Arnab Bhattacharjee, Tim Converse, Christian Kunz, Sameer Paranjpye, and Karthik Krishnamurthy —  all have a background in engineering and data, and previously worked on Yahoo’s search engine and Hadoop teams.

Jybe is focused on recommending things to mobile users like movies, books, restaurants, dishes, recipes, and reviews, thus connecting people with the “physical world.” The startup, which will be shuttered as a result of the acquisition, was first started back in 2011.

“While the Jybe app has closed, we’re confident that their data- and science-driven experience will supercharge our efforts to build great products and experiences for the millions of people who come to Yahoo! every day,” said Yahoo cloud platform group SVP Jay Rossiter in a statement.

The acqui-hire is also part of new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s new strategy to buy smaller startups and services that will improve the company’s overall products. Lately, Mayer has also been trying to lure back lots of old, talented employees that left Yahoo in recent years for greener pastures.

We’ve pasted the official announcement from Yahoo below:

We are excited to announce that Yahoo! has acquired Jybe, a personalized recommendation company founded with the vision to help people find the things they love to do based on what’s trending in their social circles.

As part of this acquisition, we’re welcoming an extremely talented group of engineers and data scientists who will join Yahoo!’s platform organization, focused on targeting and personalization. This will be a “coming home” for the team — all five are former Yahoos. Arnab Bhattacharjee was the VP of Yahoo! Search Technology (YST), one of the most well respected engineering and platforms groups in the company. He returns together with former key members of the YST and Hadoop teams — Tim Converse, Christian Kunz, Sameer Paranjpye, and Karthik Krishnamurthy.

While the Jybe app has closed, we’re confident that their data- and science-driven experience will supercharge our efforts to build great products and experiences for the millions of people who come to Yahoo! every day.
On a personal level, I’m thrilled to welcome back Arnab, Tim, Christian, Sameer and Karthik. I, too, am a recent “boomerang,” returning to Yahoo! to participate in the incredible spirit of innovation and entrepreneurialism that’s taken over the company. As a technologist, there are rare moments in your career when you get to be a fundamental part of the transformation of one of the most iconic companies on the Internet. Now is that moment for the Jybe team, me, and all of the talented engineers, developers and technologists at Yahoo!– in Sunnyvale and around the world.

Yahoo photo via acme/Flickr