Yahoo acquires OnTheAir mobile video-chat startup.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Marissa Mayer's march toward all things mobile, Yahoo has acquired tiny mobile video-chat new venture OnTheAir.

Yahoo snapped in the San Francisco-based startup currently, the five-employee company announced on its Web site. Yahoo confirmed the buy, its second since Mayer took over as chief executive this past July.

"When we first met with the team at Yahoo, it absolutely was clear that everybody there is committed to making cellular products the backbone to the world's daily habits, " the company wrote.

The mobile market keeps growing rapidly, and Mayer has said the area is integral to Yahoo's foreseeable future growth.
"Our top priority is often a focused, coherent mobile tactic, " she said within a quarterly earnings conference telephone, adding that one-half of the company's technical work force will 1 day be working on cellular.

Neither company revealed the financial terms to the acquisition of OnTheAir, which often lets users conduct online video chats in talk indicate format. Yahoo also failed to say whether it would discontinue the service, because it did with Stamped, a new recommendations engine built by former Google colleagues involving Mayer that Yahoo acquired in October.

Like its "acqu-hire" of Stamped, this acquisition seems geared more toward snagging anatomist talent than technology. In addition to one former Google staff, OnTheAir's team includes previous employees of Apple as well as instant messaging service Meebo.

"Hiring the most talented mobile product thinkers and engineers is often a big priority for us continue, " Adam Cahan, Yahoo's senior citizen vice president of rising products and technology, said inside a statement.