• Yahoo’s Recently Acquired Task Tracking Service Astrid Will Go Dark On August 5

    Chris Velazco

    Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... → Learn More

    Saturday, July 6th, 2013
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    astrid

    Yahoo has been snapping up companies left and right lately, and the revitalized company’s hunger means that some well-received apps and services have gone (or will soon go) offline. Earlier today, another company threw its name into that particular pile: task management service Astrid will officially go dark on August 5, just over three months after co-founder/CEO Jon Paris announced the acquisition on the team’s official blog.

    At the time, Paris noted that Astrid would only exist in its current state for about another 90 days and seemed content to leave the service’s future punctuated with a (potentially hopeful) question mark. Users hoping for some sort of clemency on Yahoo’s part probably won’t take the news very well, but, as promised, Astrid’s team has made a data export tool available and pointed to former competitors Wrike, Wunderlist, Sandglaz, and Any.do as potential replacements.

    Of course, that’s little consolation for the users that Astrid is leaving behind — the company’s Facebook page (which likely isn’t long for this world anyway) is peppered with comments lamenting Astrid’s death… not to mention Yahoo’s role in the matter. At this point it’s still unclear what the Astrid folks are working on over at Yahoo now that the task management service is getting shuttered — Yahoo’s acquisition statement lauded the team’s “background in personalized mobile experiences,” but remained frustratingly vague about what they would actually contribute to the company’s pronounced mobile push.

    Meanwhile, other mobile-centric companies that Yahoo snapped up have been allowed to keep working on their wares — it recently picked up Disrupt SF alum Qwiki for a cool $50 million, and has said that it won’t kill off the brand (for now, anyway).


    Company: Yahoo!
    Website: yahoo.com
    Launch Date: January 1, 1994
    IPO: December 4, 1996, Nasdaq:YHOO

    Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It has since evolved into a major internet brand with search, content verticals, and other web services. Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, is a global Internet brand. To users, the Company provides owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties, Offerings, or Owned and Operated sites). Yahoo! also extends its marketing platform and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! Properties through its distribution network...

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    Company: Astrid
    Website: astrid.com
    Launch Date: 2008
    Funding: $400k

    Astrid is a social to-do list. With Astrid people organize their goals, share ideas, provide encouragement and have a great time getting more done. Astrid has helped over 3 million people completed over 35 million tasks.

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