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News Byte

Yahoo Loses New Top Data Scientist to eBay

Kara Swisher in News on November 6 at 9:01 am PT

Tim Converse, one of Yahoo’s higher-ranking data scientists, who arrived at the company early this year via an acquisition, has been hired away by eBay. He will lead its search-science engineering team, reporting to search technology VP Dan Fain. Converse is co-founder of Jybe, a mobile app for recommendation and social discovery that the Silicon Valley Internet giant bought in March. His LinkedIn profile notes that, at Yahoo, he “worked on machine learning techniques for the personalization group.”

News Byte

Xobni’s Jeff Bonforte Officially Running Yahoo’s Communications Products

Kara Swisher in News on August 28 at 12:39 am PT

According to his LinkedIn profile, Jeff Bonforte has been named SVP of communication products at Yahoo. An insider tipped me to the new title for the former CEO of Xobni, the maker of address-book apps and plugins which Yahoo bought in July. “I have responsibility for Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Groups, Contacts, Calendar and some other stuff,” wrote Bonforte on his profile helpfully (to me!). AllThingsD had previously reported that the well-regarded former Yahoo was likely to get just this key portfolio at Yahoo, which could certainly use his expertise.

News Byte

Yahoo Paid Between $35M and $40M for Lexity E-Commerce App Platform

Kara Swisher in Commerce on August 1 at 5:12 am PT

According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo forked over between $35 million and $40 million in cash to buy Lexity, the e-commerce app platform startup. (The companies had declined to outline terms of the deal, so I decided I would.) AllThingsD reported last week that the Silicon Valley Internet giant was interested in acquiring Lexity, which was founded and is led by a well-regarded former Yahoo exec, Amit Kumar. Lexity said the service would continue to run, but eventually under new Yahoo branding. Before the acquisition, Lexity had raised close to $6 million from a range of investors.