Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion

[DonViejo]

Source: WSJ

By JOANN S. LUBLIN, AMIR EFRATI and SPENCER E. ANTE

Yahoo Inc.'s YHOO -0.23% board has approved a deal to acquire blogging startup Tumblr, people familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Yahoo has agreed to pay $1.1 billion in cash for the company, one of the people said. Tumblr would continue to operate largely as an independent business, the people said. It wasn't immediately clear whether Tumblr's board had also approved the deal. Spokesmen for Yahoo and Tumblr didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Yahoo's board approved the deal in a meeting by telephone on Friday, one of the people said. A deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the person said.

Tumblr, founded in 2007, fast built a following by making it easy for people to post blogs and photos, follow other people on Tumblr and receive updates via a feed. The website's simple design has lowered the bar for online publishing and effectively merged blogging with social media.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578493130789235150.html

[Posteritatis]

1. Poor, doomed tumblr. (nt)

[DotGone]

2. Why the gloom & doom? Look what Yahoo did with Flickr and del.icio.us

Oh wait. Nevermind

[Xithras]

20. The question is whether Mayer is smarter than her predecessors.

One of Yahoo's real problems is that it's not a "hip" company anymore. Todays college freshmen were still in diapers back when Yahoo was last considered "trendy", and the company really hasn't done much to engage younger web users and has done virtually NOTHING to engage the mobile market. If Marissa Mayer has a functioning brain in her head (and I believe that she does), she has to recognize this as one of Yahoo's biggest failings today. Google and Facebook are smart enough to stay relevant and keep younger users interested with new services, and Yahoo hasn't (and let's be honest...users between the ages of 18-30 tend to drive the adoption of most major Internet services).

Tumblr and Instagram have both been eating away at Facebook's popularity with younger web users for the past several years. My own 19 year old spends WAY more time on those services than she does on Facebook, which is why Facebook itself paid $1 billion for Instagram last year. If they can avoid screwing it up (and it sounds like they will...Mayer even suggested that the porn will stay), this may end up being Yahoo's way to get younger viewers into their service network again.

[Lordquinton]

3. "Tumblr would continue to operate largely as an independent business, the people said."

this is a huge lie, and they will never be called on it.

[Posteritatis]

4. That "largely" provides a whole lot of wiggle room. (nt)

[blueknight]

5. i love tumblr

im sure yahoo will fuck it up

[AAO]

6. Seems like a windfall for sombody.

[onehandle]

7. Good. Yahoo is a firewall against Google's domination of our Internet lives.

Facebook, like Yahoo and Bing, keep Google a little farther away from being an Internet data monopoly.

[Posteritatis]

8. Wow, haven't seen an explicit defense of oligopoly in awhile. (nt)

[onehandle]

9. How does this lead to higher prices for a free service?

Keep feeding Google and the Internet will be a giant spying device that charges you to be advertised to.

Google has made their intentions clear. They want to be the one master ISP for the world.

[Posteritatis]

12. You do know there are outcomes other than "Yahoo buys Tumblr" and "feed Google," right?

Actually, no, I doubt you know that, but I'm just putting the concept out there in case a bit of it sticks.

[Yavin4]

15. No one entity has ever dominated technology forever

When I was a kid it was "AT&T and IBM will run our lives."

When I was a young adult, it was: "Microsoft will run the world."

When I was in my 30s, it was: "This AOL/Time Warner deal will dominate the internet forever."

Now that I am in my late 40s, it's: "Google will dominate the internet."

Technology is a lot like music. There are times when one or two genres dominate, and there are acts that seem to completely over-shadow everyone else. Soon, those acts recede and new genres come into play.

[onehandle]

17. Google is the first of those companies to have access to the entirety of world communications.

The rest were either regional or a box you had to buy.

Google is 'free.'

Let me know when they stumble like the others do.

[Yavin4]

18. IBM had that same access.

They owned everything. So did AT&T. They all fell.

In the late 70s, the Bee Gees were the most succesful pop act in history.

[Xithras]

19. Err...

It was only 11 years ago that a whopping 94% of Internet users were running some flavor of IE. At roughly the same time, Apple and Linux COMBINED accounted for less than 5% of the overall computer market...everyone else ran Windows at home. At one point, the MAJORITY of Americans with Internet access used America Online, and they could (and admitted to) snooping on every single thing that you did online. A few decades ago, every communication in the country ran across Ma Bell's copper.

All were seen as unmoveable bahemoths and privacy nightmares. None remain in that position today.

The real irony is that Yahoo is being held up as the savior against Google. People have short memories. In the late 90's, Yahoo practically OWNED the Internet. Sure, there was AltaVista for the geeks, but "normal people" used Yahoo by an almost 20-1 ratio. By the late 90's they were pulling everything from Usenet and Email into their network and had acquired Yoyodyne and data mining companies to turn their users data into marketing information worth real money. They were EXACTLY what Google is now.

Google was seen as the worlds savior from Yahoo. And now some people see Yahoo as a defense against Google? Does anyone REALLY think that Yahoo simply abandoned their datamining practices?

One of the greatest ironies is that, if you're worried about your privacy, your best bet is probably....Bing. It's the only major search engine not being operated for profit right now, and is the only one actually monitored by governments for privacy issues.

[DontTreadOnMe]

10. ONE BILLION!

"sucker born every minute..."

...investment in "Capitalist Internet Ponzi Schemes™" can't last forever. See "Facebook".

[Yavin4]

16. Yep. All it takes is for someone to come with a different technology.

which will make Tumblur obsolete.

In another post, I compare technology to music. BuyingTumblr is akin to buying Motley Crue at their peak.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. That is alot to spend for moody emo kid pictures

Of-course I found Google buying Youtube's collection of unlicensed Chappelle's Show clips mystifying too.

[SoapBox]

13. and?

I don't even know what at Tumbler (whatever) is.

[kentauros]

14. Here's the wiki on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr

I've never liked Tumblr anyway. It's yet another image-intensive blogging/social-networking site. I'll be sticking with WordPress. Their software is easier to use and most of their blogs are about the blogging part (i.e., the written word) versus a never-ending stream of images.