Incredible Labs, the startup behind mobile personal assistant app Donna, has been acqui-hired. Five of the seven members of the team will join Yahoo, and Donna will be shut down.
We’ve written a fair amount about Donna since it was launched last spring. The app sought to make life easier for users by proactively anticipating things that they would need and providing it to them. For the most part, that meant notifying users that they’d have to leave for a meeting, providing directions, and even emailing contacts automatically to tell them you’re running late.
The Incredible Labs team joining Yahoo includes Kevin Cheng, who held product roles at Yahoo and Twitter; Arshad Tayyeb and Spence Murray, who had worked for DoubleTwist and Netscape; Bloom founder Jesper Andersen; and Jason LeBrun. In a separate blog post, co-founder Scott San Filippo said he is not joining Yahoo and is looking to start something new.
Five members of the team will be joining the Yahoo Communications department headed up by SVP Jeff Bonforte, where they’ll be working on Yahoo Mail, a Yahoo representative confirmed to us. The acquisition follows Yahoo’s recent purchase of enterprise app studio Tomfoolery, which joined that team. Other products in that division include Yahoo Messenger, Groups, Contacts, and Calendar.
Not unexpectedly, Donna will be shut down, spelling the end for one of many apps built to improve personal productivity through software. Other apps in that category include Sunrise, Tempo, Any.do Cal, and Fantastical, among others.
Incredible Labs had raised $2.5 million from investors that include Khosla Ventures, Betaworks, Maynard Webb, CrunchFund*, Ashton Kutcher, and other angels.
Yahoo issued the following statement:
We have reached an agreement to acquire Incredible Labs, the team behind personal assistant app, Donna. In case you haven’t heard of her, Donna’s pretty amazing – she has an immense amount of intellect, she keeps you on time and gives you the information you need, when you need it. For her clients, she’s the ultimate daily habit. When we met with the team from Incredible Labs, it was an immediate fit. As we look to the future, our visions are aligned in that we think technology should be smart enough to think for us. Five team members will join the Communications team in Sunnyvale at deal close, where they will work on Yahoo Mail. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the next few days.
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*CrunchFund was co-founded by Michael Arrington, who started TechCrunch, but that’s not why I’m covering it.
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