iWorld
Yahoo buys Flurry to scale up its mobile ad biz
MUMBAI: As internet and social media giants is speeding up to add specialised startups to boost their advertising business, Yahoo too is following the trend. Yahoo has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Flurry, a mobile ad and analytics company.
A statement issued by Yahoo mentioned, “Our agreement to acquire Flurry is a meaningful step for the company and reinforces Yahoo’s commitment to building and supporting useful, inspiring and beautiful mobile applications and monetization solutions. By joining Yahoo, Flurry will have resources to speed up the delivery of platforms that help developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities. Together, the companies can make mobile experiences better through products that are more personalized and more inspiring.”
Analytics are critical for all mobile developers to understand and optimise their applicationsThe combined scale of the two companies will accelerate revenue growth of developers and publishers across the mobile ecosystem.
In addition, the joined offerings of Yahoo and Flurry will enable more effective mobile advertising solutions for brands seeking to reach their audiences and gain unique insights across desktop and mobile, and users will benefit from more personalized app experiences.
As announced in Q2 earnings last week, Yahoo mobile usage is growing rapidly. Yahoo’s mobile display and search revenue each grew more than 100 per cent year-over-year. More than half Yahoo’s total monthly audience visits on a mobile device, and in Q2, over 450 million mobile monthly active users came to Yahoo, a 36 per cent increase year-over-year. The average Yahoo user now spends 86 per cent of his/her time on smartphones in apps
“Yahoo’s growth in mobile traffic comes from great people and great products. Flurry’s success is the result of years of committed investment by a passionate team to create an indispensable platform for mobile developers. We want to harness our collective innovative spirit and bolster the mobile ecosystem by providing developers the analytics and monetization solutions to drive their success,” said Yahoo SVP advertising technology Scott Burke.
“As part of Yahoo, Flurry will continue to serve the application developer community in the way we always have, only better. With Yahoo, we will have access to more resources to speed up the delivery of great products that can help app developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities. Over the last six years we have accomplished a lot on our own, but with Yahoo we are in an even better position to achieve our joint goals,” mentioned Flurry president and CEO Simon Khalaf.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
