And Yumblr is born: Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1 billion
Rumors that surfaced at the end of last week appear to have been confirmed, as the Wall Street Journal reports
that Yahoo has acquired popular blogging-meets-social platform Tumblr
for $1.1 billion – slightly more than Facebook’s acquisition of
Instagram for $1 billion last spring. Yahoo is expected to announce the deal Monday afternoon in New York City.
Yahoo has been on a tear acquiring young startups since restructuring under new CEO Marissa Mayer, but the Tumblr buy out is easily the largest profile purchase it’s made, as well as the most mature technology and team it has added to its portfolio. The impetus behind the deal seems pretty forthright: Yahoo wants to look like a hipper, more agile, more mobile, social-friendly brand, and Tumblr has been actively seeking a way to monetize the platform that introduced us to the art of reblogging.
While the deal appears set in stone, many questions remain – namely, what exactly Yahoo plans to do with Tumblr. Will it harvest the executives and subsume the technology? That scenario is seems unlikely, given Tumblr’s incredibly loyal and active userbase, but Yahoo’s track record with acquisitions can be fairly described as uneven.
Yahoo has been on a tear acquiring young startups since restructuring under new CEO Marissa Mayer, but the Tumblr buy out is easily the largest profile purchase it’s made, as well as the most mature technology and team it has added to its portfolio. The impetus behind the deal seems pretty forthright: Yahoo wants to look like a hipper, more agile, more mobile, social-friendly brand, and Tumblr has been actively seeking a way to monetize the platform that introduced us to the art of reblogging.
While the deal appears set in stone, many questions remain – namely, what exactly Yahoo plans to do with Tumblr. Will it harvest the executives and subsume the technology? That scenario is seems unlikely, given Tumblr’s incredibly loyal and active userbase, but Yahoo’s track record with acquisitions can be fairly described as uneven.
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