Marissa Mayer buys Stamped in mobile talent grab for Yahoo

Newly minted Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has purchased Stamped, a mobile recommendations-focused startup with a team of talented ex-Googlers, to help the company catch up to competitors far ahead in the all-important race for mobile mindshare.

Mayer confirmed the acquisition on Twitter with an Instagram capture of her and the Stamped team, as pictured above. Yahoo also announced the deal on its corporate blog.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the purchase appears to be more for Stamped’s team than for the startup’s application, which encourages users to give their stamp of approval to their favorite bars, restaurants, songs, apps, and so forth.

The New York-based company originally launched one year ago with backing from Google Ventures. Earlier this year, Stamped released a remodeled version of the application and added a number of high-profile seed investors, including celebrities Justin Bieber, Ellen Degeneres, and Ryan Seacrest, to its investor list.

“Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired a very talented team based in New York City to help us create a new center of mobile product development for Yahoo,” Adam Cahan, senior vice president of emerging products and technology, wrote in a blog post. Cahan is also the creator of IntoNow, the second-screen TV-tagging application Yahoo picked up before Mayer landed at the company.

“Mobile is at the center of how we connect with people, consume information, and pass the time, and we’re focused on making Yahoo the most inspiring and entertaining way to do just that,” Cahan said.

The Stamped app will be discontinued by the end of year. Co-founders Robby Stein, Bart Stein, and Kevin Palms said, in a letter posted to the company’s website, that the team will be “creating a brand new product and engineering office for Yahoo in NYC’s Bryant Park.”