Yahoo! buys Chinese social data startup Ztelic for R&D boost

Yahoo! has announced the latest buy in its frantic acquisition spree: Chinese social analytics startup Ztelic.

The buyout is apparently a part of Yahoo!’s bid to boost its R&D centre in Beijing and is likely eased by the fact that Ztelic founder Hao Zheng is Yahoo! veteran having previously worked as a senior web architect for the company.

The deal, first reported by the Global Times , looks to be another talent acquisition on Yahoo!’s part as Ztelic officially announced that it would be shuttering some of its services.

In a statement made to The Next Web, Yahoo! pretty much confirmed the buyout was based more on talent than product too:

As part of our investment in our China R&D efforts, we’re bringing on a talented team of eight developers and engineers from Ztelic. Ztelic founder and returning Yahoo, Hao Zheng, will play a critical leadership role in our Beijing Global R&D Center. Hao will split his time between Beijing and Sunnyvale, and the rest of his team will be based in Beijing.

While Marissa Mayer has made a number of acquisitions in the year since she took over as Yahoo! CEO, and made some fairly substantial changes to the company’s structure, it looks like her efforts haven’t made much of an impression on the company’s results. As ReadWrite reports, she also hasn’t managed to change the vast majority of people’s perceptions that Yahoo! is a dying brand.