Yahoo! Inc.’s share price up, to focus on wearable and mobile devices in pursuit of growth

Yahoo! Inc. has put its focus on generating growth on wearable and other mobile devices. The Senior Vice-President of its mobile division, Adam Cahan, explained that competitive wearable devices like Apple Watch, for example, offer a great opportunity for Yahoo in 2015.

According to Cahan’s statement, such wearables could be considered as new territory for both the already existing and the new applications. The company plans to concentrate on its future growth in this sector, as it sees potential.

Adam Cahan said in a statement, cited by the Financial Times: “We’re talking about a platform that is still growing by leaps and bounds — five times as many devices in front of us — and the categories of devices are undergoing a huge evolution. I really try to look at what are the sensors on these new devices, as they enable us to reimagine experiences.”

The 19-year-old Oxford student Nick D’Aloisio heads the first venture of Yahoo into wearable devices. D’Aloisio is currently a product manager for the company. He shared his belief that wearable devices have a huge potential to deliver information to customers. As reported by the Financial Times, he said: “Developers could sink or swim, really dominate.”

Yahoo became part of the launch of Apple Watch, and developed a version of Yahoo News Digest for the device. The U.S.-based company, however, does not restrict itself to one wearable device manufacturer only, while it does not reject the possibility to create its own wearable device as well.

Mr. Cahan said for the Financial Times that software developers such as Yahoo were often “somewhat reluctant to join the hardware game”, but he could “never say never” to the possibility of entering the hardware business.

Yahoo! Inc. was up 0.02% to trade at $50.87 per share as of 14:57 GMT, marking a one-year gain of 25.64%. The company is valued at $48.48 billion. According to CNN Money, The 34 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Yahoo! have a median target of 53.50, with a high estimate of 63.00 and a low estimate of 38.00. The median estimate represents a +5.17% increase from the last price of 50.87.