SUMMLY: Yahoo Buys Website from 17-year-old Tech Whiz Nick D’Aloisio, $30 Million

Nick D'Aloisio is the British-Australian 17-year-old founder of Summly, a mobile application that he developed which searched for news snippets and makes them better suited for mobile devices and smartphones. He just sold this website and app to Yahoo!, making him an instant millionaire. Now he will work for Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer as the company's youngest employee.

Nick Built Summly in his bedroom when he was mearly 15 years old. The application attracted numerous investors including Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and even Ashton Kutcher. Yahoo! Ended up winning the bidding war for the hot pickup, but D'Aloisio said it took months to come to an agreement.

In an interview with The Post, the teenager explained:

"There were other big Internet companies interested, but Yahoo! was the most appropriate. Yahoo! is just one of these classic companies."

The price has not been officially disclosed, but according to AllThingsD it was $30 million - "90 percent in cash and 10 percent in stock." Yahoo! now gets a new mobile product as part of its broader strategy to establish its brand on smartphones and tablets.

Here is Nick's statement currently up on Summly.com:

In true Summly fashion, I will keep this short and sweet.

I am delighted to announce Summly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo!. Our vision is to simplify how we get information and we are thrilled to continue this mission with Yahoo!'s global scale and expertise. After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people's daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it's the perfect fit.

When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly. I'd personally like to thank Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures for having the foresight to back a teenager pursuing his dream. Also to our investors, advisors and of course the fantastic team for believing in the potential of Summly. Without you all, this never would have been possible. I'd also like to thank my family, friends and school for supporting me.

Most importantly, thank you to our wonderful users who have helped contribute to us receiving Apple's Best Apps of 2012 award for Intuitive Touch! We will be removing Summly from the App Store today but expect our summarization technology will soon return to multiple Yahoo! products - see this as a 'power nap' so to speak.

With over 90 million summaries read in just a few short months, this is just the beginning for our technology. As we move towards a more refined, liberated and intelligent mobile web, summaries will continue to help navigate through our ever expanding information universe.

Sincerely,

Nick
Founder