XO Group acquires recipe aggregation platform Gojee

By Nicel Jane Avellana

Mar 21, 2014 10:54 AM EDT

Recipe-finding website Gojee has just been bought by the XO Group, TechCrunch reported.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed but the purchase took place after Gojee had talked with other firms, including Yahoo, for a potential acquisition. However, these discussions did not pan out. A source first told TechCrunch about the purchase and the tech news site was able to verify the acquisition with XO Group. As part of the deal, XO engaged the services of five employees of Gojee which included the site's Co-Founders Mike LaValle and Tian He. The new owner plans to continue operating the site so that it complements with that of its other websites that are geared towards women, the report said.

In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, XO Group's Vice President of Product Josh Himwich said, "For us at XO Group Inc., particularly at The Bump and The Nest, we recognized this great moment to take the special sauce that Gojee has in collecting content that people are emotionally connected to, and present it to our users in compelling new ways. Gojee's award-winning apps have been featured in Apple commercials and retail stores nationwide - the exact talent and forward product thinking we're excited to bring on."

Gojee, which had secured $4 million from Kapoor Capital and InterWest Partners, had talked with firms other than Yahoo for a possible acquisition. Some of them were Buzz Feed, Yelp and luxury e-commerce firm The RealReal, the report said.

The team at Gojee will be tasked with reviving the dated web properties of XO and modernizing the mobile experience. comScore data showed that in February, the sites of XO only had 4.7 million unique visitors, representing a plunge of 18.6% compared to what it posted last year. The Knot, it's largest website of the XO Group, however, was able to get 2.2 million unique visitors last month representing a 2.7% rise from the same period last year, the report said.

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