VentureBeat

Yahoo has acquired Bix, the Palo Alto start-up that lets people compete in online karaoke, hot or not and other contests.

The amount was undisclosed, but this acquisition was fast; Bix launched barely three months ago.

It is the latest sign of focus by Yahoo in its acquisition strategy. Its purchases have slowed to a trickle, but the deals it has completed concern community, user-generated sites (Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming.org and Jumpcut), which stands in contrast with Google, which has focused on applications.

Bix raised $6.77 million in a first round of funding from Sutter Hill Ventures, Trinity Ventures and Stanford. It is yet another win for angel investor Amidzad, the separate venture fund created by the Palo Alto rug merchants who, aside from various international investments, also own lots of office property in Palo Alto. They invested in Bix when it moved into their property on Florence Street, and saw a nice profit on this investment, we’re told.

The idea behind Bix was to let companies sponsor the competitions online, handing out gifts to the winners. Bix is also planning to let users embed a widget on their own Web sites featuring the Bix contests.

We note the rather overt reference to its mature content on its home page (see below).