Yahoo to Donna Users Were Dispensing With Your Indispensable App
Incredible Labs  the company behind smart-calendar app Donna  is being acquired by Yahoo. The app is being shut down, and most of the folks who worked on it will join the Yahoo Mail team. The farewell post on the Donna blog, by Incredible's Kevin Cheng, follows the standard five-act kabuki of startup acquisition announcements I've written about before, 1. Announcement of thrilling acquisition 2. Reiteration of startup's wildly ambitious founding notion 3, Explanation that either Google or Facebook or, in this case, Yahoo is the best place to change the world 4. Acknowledgement or sometimes non-acknowledgement that the startup's product is being discontinued or is going into limbo 5. Expression of heartfelt gratitude to various supporters, usually including the consumers who are losing something they liked, The acquisition isn't surprising  these days, Yahoo is snapping up interesting little companies with talented crews at a rapid clip. It's also not a catastrophe. Donna is cool, but it's in a category crowded with competitors, such as Tempo and Sunrise. Thinning of the herd is inevitable, and there's obvious potential to incorporate Donna-like features into Yahoo Mail, where hundreds of millions of people could end up benefiting from them. Still, I'm fascinated by the oddness of Yahoo's statement on the deal, as quoted by TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler, Donna is amazing! It's the ultimate daily habit! We're killing it!