Yahoo to acquire Tumblr for $1.1B, 'promises not to screw it up'

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Yahoo on Monday announced it has reached a $1.1 billion agreement to buy Tumblr, the popular microblogging platform with a strong presence on Apple's iOS.

Tumblr


In the company's press release, Yahoo said it "promises to not screw it up" in buying out Tumblr. The search company's handling of photo sharing site Flickr, which it acquired in 2005, is one prominent example as to why some have expressed concern over the Tumblr deal.

Tumblr has more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day. The platform sees 900 posts per second and 24 billion sites spent on the site each month.

Among users on the go, more than half are using the official Tumblr mobile applications, available for Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

The universal Tumblr app for iOS is one of the most popular free social networking applications available on the App Store. As of Monday morning, Tumblr was the fourth most downloaded free application in the App Store's "Social Networking" category, with nearly 164,000 user reviews giving an average score of four stars out of five.

Yahoo said Tumblr will be able to deploy its personalization technology and search infrastructure to help users discover content and other users. Tumblr will also bring 50 billion blog posts to Yahoo's media and search experiences.

"Tumblr is redefining creative expression online," said Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary.

"Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands ? established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo! are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."

Tumblr Chief Executive David Karp attempted to ease concerns among his site's community, assuring users that the team and roadmap are not changing.

"We're elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from," Karp said.

An update for the official Tumblr app was coincidentally issued on Monday. Version 3.3.2 adds a "fancy" new post type chooser, as well as app attribution on posts.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Tumblr is one of the best iOS apps on the whole platform. I'm serious.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member
    When you promise not to screw up, pretty much means you'll screw it up. Just came from Posterous that was purchased by Twitter and closed down by the end of April. Went with Tumblr and just started to post so not too much, but very leery of what is here today, will it be here tomorrow? Guess I'll check out WP. Anybody buying them out???
  • Reply 3 of 18
    johnnyb0731johnnyb0731 Posts: 326member


    Where did Yahoo get $1.1 billion?

  • Reply 4 of 18
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    rot'napple wrote: »
    When you promise not to screw up, pretty much means you'll screw it up.

    I wouldn't always agree with that. Just look at their CEO. The main way I see them screwing up Tumblr is firing her.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Where did Yahoo get $1.1 billion?

    They have about $6.5B in cash.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    buckalecbuckalec Posts: 203member


    Broadcast.com 2.0

  • Reply 7 of 18
    ireland wrote: »
    Tumblr is one of the best iOS apps on the whole platform. I'm serious.

    Definitely. One of the apps I most missed when I went to Android despite the similarities between the apps. The experience is second to none on iOS.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    I wonder if they already screwed up with the sale price. I think it's questionable that $1.1B investment in Tumblr can pay off, at least under Yahoo! management. Even under the best management, to make money, you'll probably have to change it enough to lose a lot of the user base.

    A Forbes columnist gives a few reasons why he thinks it's a bad idea:
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/20/yahoos-tumblr-buy-fails-4-tests-of-a-successful-acquisition/

    Business insider has some counterpoints:
    http://www.businessinsider.com/why-yahoos-11-billion-tumblr-buy-is-a-great-idea-2013-5

    I'd really love to see a realistic scenario where an investment like this pays off, one without wishful thinking added into the mix. I get the feeling the lessons of the first dot bomb are wearing off.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Where did Yahoo get $1.1 billion?

    I keep wondering that but it seems they've been saving for a rainy day:

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130416006591/en/Yahoo!-Reports-Quarter-2013-Results

    Their income last quarter was $186m but they have $4.6b of assets and another few billion in investments. They have $831m invested in China's Amazon - the Alibaba Group. Ignoring the Goodwill part and deducting liabilities, they have about $10b or so.

    Most of their business is the same as Google - advertising - and their revenue here has been decreasing. Their purchases include snip.it, Alike, Jybe and of course Summly. They are even using Google to display ads now.

    They are also responsible for the web-TV show Burning Love:


    [VIDEO]


    A parody of a reality TV show. Maybe they should make one about Yahoo called Burning Money.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member


    "1.1 Billion Dollars!"...


     


     



     


    Sorry, I know this gets old, but just had to...

  • Reply 11 of 18
    wozwozwozwoz Posts: 263member
    That's about $1billion too much. Noobs.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    ireland wrote: »
    Where did Yahoo get $1.1 billion?

    They have about $6.5B in cash.

    If that's true than they're not spending wisely.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    alr26alr26 Posts: 29member


    Tumblr has now headed down Yahoo's one-way street of doom.

  • Reply 14 of 18

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rot'nApple View Post



    When you promise not to screw up, pretty much means you'll screw it up. Just came from Posterous that was purchased by Twitter and closed down by the end of April.


    It could have been worse... Tumblr could have been bought by HP.  That would have spelled doom indeed!

  • Reply 15 of 18
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member


    Somebody at AI needs to turn off smart punctuation in their word processor before cutting and pasting their articles - and ending up with lots of question marks in a lot of articles.



    You've rewritten your entire site, you're probably the leading Mac Rumors site, you've forged connections with resellers, etc., etc. - yet you let this simple problem detract from the reading experience for years, which gives your articles an amateurish quality....



     

  • Reply 16 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by bigpics View Post

    Somebody at AI needs to turn off smart punctuation in their word processor before cutting and pasting their articles - and ending up with lots of question marks in a lot of articles.


     


    No, it's just Huddler and a pathetic inability to translate characters through the bot from site to forum. I used to fix that before 1. a site update broke ease of editing and 2. it kept happening, a lot, and nothing was done to stop it.


     


    The lack of proofreading before posting, though…

  • Reply 17 of 18
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member


    Yahoo!: "Here's a check for $1.1 billion.  Take it or leave it."


     


    Tumblr: "Awe. Some.  Where do we sign?"


     


    Microsoft: "Wait!  We'll give you $10 billion.  Are we too late?"


     


    Google: "Hey Ballmer.  Here's an extra $1 billion.  Do us a favor.  Buy Tumblr for $11 billion."

  • Reply 18 of 18
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    I see this as a desperate grab for what they think are the up and coming spender demographic. Young semi-educated 24-35 year olds. I think it is definitely a generational thing. Personally I think Tumblr is boring. A bunch of 20 somethings trying to be entertaining but failing miserably. The founder was a drop out and it looks like most of the followers are too. Yahoo gets a big zero from me on this one. One of the main issues is the adult, inappropriate material on many of the blogs. How do they clean it up without alienating the users. The bigger question is how do they monetize the service. To me it looks like it has fail written all over it. Kudos to the founder and venture capitalists for making the sale.

Sign In or Register to comment.