Yahoo said Tuesday it has acquired Artifact, the AI-powered news platform from Instagram co-founders, and will integrate its technology into the U.S. web service provider’s news and other sites.
The deal signals continued pain for media startups struggling to grow revenue at a time when big tech giants Alphabet and Meta Platforms attract the bulk of ad sales.
In January, Artifact announced in a blog post that it would cease operations on its app because “the market opportunity is not large enough to justify continued investment in this manner.” Yahoo, which also owns news brands TechCrunch, Engadget and Yahoo Finance, said Artifact’s AI-powered recommendation engine and other features will help it scale its news operations and provide personalized content to the audience.
 "screenshot")
Artifact on its website
The online publisher also holds a minority stake in content recommendation platform Taboola.
Yahoo, which declined to share financial details, was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in 2021.
Artifact was launched in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike Krieger. They previously worked at Meta, then known as Facebook, after the company acquired Instagram in 2012.
The duo left the owner of Facebook at the end of 2018, which some
media reports
later described as being due to their strained relationship with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and their differences in their visions for Instagram.
Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during this transition, Yahoo said in a statement.
First publication: April 3, 2024 | 12:25 p.m. STI
