Yahoo has announced the buyout of self-destructing OTT messaging company Blink, with both its Android and iOS apps set to close ‘in the next few weeks’.

“We built Blink because we believe everyone should be free to show the same honesty and spontaneity in their online conversations as they can in person,” said Blinks Kevin Stephens, a former Google employee. “We look forward to the possibilities that will come from bringing the Blink vision to Yahoo.”

Given that the whole industry has its eyes on the OTT messaging market, with everyone keen to get a piece of this growing global audience, Yahoo could simply re-design Blink under its own branding. But in Yahoos Q1 earnings call last month, CEO Marissa Mayer said the company will focus on the performance and efficiency of its 16-year-old Mail platform over the next few months, so the Blink team may be a key part of this. Mail on mobile saw 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in daily active users in Q1, Mayer said, with the data technology acquired last year from Xobni already being used to give users smarter context.

Yahoo was the top tech acquirer of 2013, shelling out $1.2bn, in stark contrast to 2012 where the company didnt even make the top 50. Mayers team has continued this flurry of activity in  2014, buying eight companies in the first two months alone. “Over the past six quarters, weve made bringing the best people to Yahoo a priority. And this continued to be a focus in Q1 especially bringing great technical talent to Yahoo,” Mayer said last month.

“Last quarter alone we hired more than 300 talented engineers. Weve also brought great talent and technology to Yahoo through our M&A strategy. When you look at the acquisitions weve made over the last year, teams are leading the development and execution around a number of our key products.”

Aviate, the buyout of which was announced in January CES, is now playing a central role in the future of Yahoos contextual personalised mobile search; teams from Alike and Summly built the News Digest app; while former Rockmelt employees teamed up with Snip.it and Tumblr folks to develop the companys new digital magazines.

Yahoo has  been criticised for taking a rather heavy-handed acquihire approach, shuttering the majority of products and companies it invests in and leaving many users high and dry. It looks like Blink users will be joining that list.