9 ms·

Yahoo aquires Tumblr

180 points by captn3m0 13y ago

furconit 13y ago
These promises don't matter at all, once they are acquired they are owned by Yahoo and their fate is at the hands of the owner - flickr went through it , many others did, it's a predictable story
tmzt 13y ago
Tumblr+Yahoo!
- Domenic_S 13y ago
  Yahoomblr?
  - obviouslygreen 13y ago
    Bah humbuglr!
  - pseut 13y ago
    I like "Tumblroo!"
  - saalweachter 13y ago
    Yumblr!.
  - rossjudson 13y ago
    You sir, are Completly Incorrct. Yahumblr!
trendspotter 13y ago
First ever acquisition announced by animated gif :) https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336453536298717184 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336453536298717184
- Indyan 13y ago
  Well, at least she seems to "get" Tumblr. http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great-workplace-dilemmas-of-our-time http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great-wor...
mherdeg 13y ago
Marissa Mayer's blog post about Yahoo! having acquired Tumblr leads with the "Keep Calm and Carry On" propaganda image that the British government generated during the war but never used because it was only meant to be rolled out as a very last resort in the emergency situation that Nazis had occupied England.
- beseku 13y ago
  I'm assuming you don't live or visit the UK often, as that poster is everywhere and is used in various forms by huge numbers of companies. There is absolutely no political subtext to its use anymore. It's a meme, the equivalent to using a cat image.
  - aetimmes 13y ago
    A meme that Tumblr uses pretty frequently, at that.
  - shardling 13y ago
    It's actually pretty damn common in the US these days, too.
  - mherdeg 13y ago
    I live and work in central London. Having seen the poster everywhere for a while now, it has been hard to avoid learning a bit about the image's history, including the recent hilarity with the EU trademark ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On-souvenirs.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over-Ke... ) and the image's organic growth in popularity from 2005 ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm ). I think it's funny to see people use things in apparent ignorance of their historical context; for example I was totally bummed that http://www.gophercon.com/ http://www.gophercon.com/ wasn't about the protocol.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
dhotson 13y ago
“We promise not to screw it up.”
- jaggederest 13y ago
  "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick#Death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick#Death
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jhowell 13y ago
  Like a race car driver saying, "don't hit the wall... don't hit the wall" then bang, into the wall. Not being in Yahoo's shoes I don't know what I'd say. But I don't think that anything could be said to ease the concerns of the acquired customers. Actions speak louder than words and words can sometimes cloud actions.
mark_l_watson 13y ago
Dog food, eaten. Very clever of her to use Tumblr to comment on the acquisition. Now I am curious enough to get a Tumblr account and play with it.
- virtuz 13y ago
  Really, clever and not obvious?
kmfrk 13y ago
She's got a great sense of humour. Love the missing "e" in "mayr".
- apas 13y ago
  How true.
- Domenic_S 13y ago
  So web 2.0.
- brown9-2 13y ago
  Seems like her full name was taken.
  - Killswitch 13y ago
    She could have reserved it to stop squatters, and used the "mayr" version. Edit: She just confirmed it: https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872
supercoder 13y ago
"Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure" What exactly is this 'personalization technology' ? And could you just do http://google.com?q=site:tumblr.com http://google.com?q=site:tumblr.com and save a quick billion ?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jayzalowitz 13y ago
  cross network information pollination changes the equation.
- greyman 13y ago
  They will probably force users to merge their tumblr and yahoo identity into one (similar to flickr).
yarapavan 13y ago
acquires or aquires?
pizu 13y ago
Did anyone tell Marissa that Tumblr is free? Spending $1.1 billion just to post a single post, seems just like a huge waste of cash...
- sigkill 13y ago
  Save the snark, human. It's free for others because she chose to plunk the B.
- 31reasons 13y ago
  User attention is not free. Its not money but its not free. Isn't that the story of the last 10 years?
- crisnoble 13y ago
  Facebook is free. Google is free. LinkedIn is free. In fact Yahoo is free. Why would the freeness of tumblr have any negative effect on your analysis of this deal?
chiph 13y ago
We will operate Tumblr independently. This might be the way for Yahoo to succeed - operate as a holding company, plus optionally provide core services (identity management) to their independent properties.
- quackerhacker 13y ago
  I agree with you here! I think Mayer posting on Tumblr is a sign of her commitment and acknowledgement (obviously) to Tumblr....I hope more Yahoo employees (ESP Mayer), continue to use Tumblr consistently to feel what their users feel and be committed.
- joonix 13y ago
  So, no synergies other than ... authentication services? Then what's the point of buying them? Remember, Tumblr is barely making any money and was running out of cash. If Yahoo has nothing to offer them other than "identity management" and bureaucracy, then this is yet another failed Yahoo acquisition.
  - chiph 13y ago
    My (unspoken) assumption is that Yahoo management can successfully monetize Tumblr. Is Tumblr going to continue to bleed dollars? Yes, in the short term. But the Yahoo board is willing to invest 1.1B in them, and obviously think that in the future the Tumblr services will be a complementary product offering and will become profitable. Hopefully Marissa & the board have a roadmap for fixing & growing the firm, and that this wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. There are other likely synergies - back office functions (accounting, HR, etc), but also ad serving. I don't personally know how good the Yahoo ad network is, but by all accounts, it has got to be better than Tumblr's. I think the key change that has to happen is that acquisitions have to have the choice in picking a Yahoo technology to adopt (or not..) and that it can't be forced down their throat. And if Marissa is smart, she'll block any Yahoo people asking questions like "So, why aren't you using our fabulous tech?", because merely asking the question takes away valuable time.
    - 13y ago
tree_of_item 13y ago
Did someone squat marissamayer.tumblr.com? Why would she not just take it? It seems to be empty.
- lucian1900 13y ago
  I think it's supposed to be disemvoweled as "tumblr" is.
  - DJNewStyle 13y ago
    I thoroughly enjoy your use of "disemvoweled". Did you coin this?
    - scott_s 13y ago
      I was curious, too, but no: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
- baby 13y ago
  Inside joke : https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872
caycep 13y ago
Aside from the infrastructure and potential monetization capabilities Yahoo brings to Tumblr, I suspect the major undercurrent here is Mayer becoming a mentor to Dave Karp. I don't see this deal happening w/ just any other pair of CEO's; I don't think the crew running the show before MM could really tell you what Tumblr was. Maybe Jerry Yang, but certainly not the interim team.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    Why is it that brand new users are allowed to comment?
    - baby 13y ago
      So that's why his nickname is in green! I always thought they were like very important persons.
      - jonnathanson 13y ago
        VIP, but in this case, the "I" doesn't stand for "important."
- ssupra 13y ago
  Looks like money is no concern to Marissa when she wants to get laid. (Reposted because it's funny and censorship is not.)
  - granitepail 13y ago
    it's not funny and that was not censorship. it was an expression of collective disappointment at a user's attempt to marginalize the CEO of a large and influential tech company made purely on the grounds of her being a woman. it's an interesting move for yahoo! and i'm curious as to see how their revitalization campaign plays out.
spdy 13y ago
Seems like a good time to sell to Yahoo! You get a lot of money and you can negotiate dream terms. Yahoo! is very desperate to get an audience and they need one. If you exclude Flickr which Yahoo! service did you use in the last years, for myself none.
- robomartin 13y ago
  I use their email. I prefer it to gmail and it is not subject to Google's robo-shutdowns.
alex_doom 13y ago
I hope they're not forced to use Yahoo's awful login system the way Flickr was.
mohitz 13y ago
The blog heading is too apt. Marissa Mayer's tumblr :)
baby 13y ago
This is great. I see many important points in this declaration: * animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well. * "We will operate Tumblr independently" : I think this is exactly what everyone hoped, and what all big acquisition should be like (Facebook did that with Instagram and it's great!). That means NSFW will stay NSFW. * "David Karp will remain CEO." The most qualified people to grow Tumblr are the people already in place. This is great, everyone's relieved. I really think Yahoo's back in the game now. I would never have used yahoo before. Now hundred thousands of people are. And they are from the new generation.
- fakeer 13y ago
  On Tumblr till quite late the only blogs(photo/video blogs) I followed were NSFW. Recently I stumbled upon a few non-NSFWs that I like.
  - JohnQUnknown 13y ago
    What's this non-NSFW madness you talk about? Most of the beauty of Tumblr for many of us has been the lax of TOS enforcement from the people at Tumblr, this has rendered countless of blogs ranging from vanilla porn to the most gore-ish and deviated pictures I have seen in my life. I think I'll just sit back and watch how this develops, I am an avid Tumblr user and I would really hate it if they started to take away my much beloved NSFW blogs.
- magicg 13y ago
  Yeah I love the gif!
- dominotw 13y ago
  ' animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well' Why is this such a big thing, what is so hard to grasp about tumblr.
  - bulatb 13y ago
    What's (allegedly) hard to grasp is that Tumblr is Tumblr, not a generic money-engine that eats X dollars worth of fuel and puts out $Y worth of value. Mayer is acknowledging that part of Tumblr's recipe for spitting out that $Y is the culture that the users and the team have made, and that approaching it as if that didn't matter will not work. Whether that's how Tumblr's integration into Yahoo! will actually be treated remains to be seen.
newbie12 13y ago
I never, ever would have predicted that Tumblr would beat Posterous in the blogging platform wars.
- seiji 13y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - newbie12 13y ago
    There was a point a couple years ago when Posterous was really innovating and Tumblr seemed dead-- the Tumblr staff (CEO?) were ranting at their users and there were technical problems.
shaydoc 13y ago
Has tumblr tumbled ? Shall the cool kids seek a new indie alternative ? Surely this acquisition creates such an opportunity for some Nu upstart ?
timrogers 13y ago
Is there any reason that Tumblr couldn't take the freemium route? It has high engagement, and a passionate audience that might well be willing to pay to keep the same Tumblr they always had, as opposed to a sanitised ad-friendly one. Of course, there's the possibility that its audience won't have the means to pay up, or that people will just go elsewhere.
zaoyang 13y ago
I have mixed feelings about this. Looking at Yahoo's balance sheet, it's 100% of its cash equivalents and 25% of its current assets. On one other hand, the strategic value could be valuable: * Product team that understands the uniqueness of creative community (focus on reblogging, photo blogging, media focus) * Retention of creator community/teen community and its long term SEO potential * An audience that probably provides augmentation to Yahoo's total sites and probably adds unique users on a de-dup basis * There's also the viability of monetizing it the way Twitter/YouTube has monetized by carefully monetizing the users will not pissing off the community On the other hand: * Yahoo doesn't have a good track record of internal executives working with acquisitions * They are still at the stage where their M&A integration is probably nascent (sales/marketing integration, executive alignment, OKR alignment) Hard for me to make an opinion of this, but it is risky give Yahoo's balance sheet.
sc00ter 13y ago
You've got to hand it to her, the 'NSFW?' 'WFH!' image is near genius!
Crake 13y ago
From the notes on the post: "somethingcatchyhere reblogged this from marissamayr and added: you better not fuck this one up “marissa mayer,” if that’s even your real name" Stay classy, tumblr. (Or "stay uninformed," more like.)
jacquesm 13y ago
> We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. What this really says is that even though Yahoo! acquired all of the Tumblr stock it will remain an independent company and Yahoo will not ask for favours or influence Tumblr in any way. So Tumblr will not be absorbed or coerced to do things it would not otherwise do. But then, a few lines down: > The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%. If Tumblr is still independent how does this grow Yahoo!'s audience? > Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. If Tumblr so far saw no reason to require a Yahoo! login and their first move (the ink on the agreement is not even dry yet) is to go for a Yahoo! ID (any other interpretation of that line?) and Yahoo! search then clearly they are not as independent as suggested in the first few lines. I put very little faith in promises made by executives of companies being acquired or the ones doing the acquiring around the time of a major deal. See: http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaMayer http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaM...

180 points by captn3m0 13y ago

These promises don't matter at all, once they are acquired they are owned by Yahoo and their fate is at the hands of the owner - flickr went through it , many others did, it's a predictable story

tmzt 13y ago

Tumblr+Yahoo!

Domenic_S 13y ago
Yahoomblr?
- obviouslygreen 13y ago
  Bah humbuglr!
- pseut 13y ago
  I like "Tumblroo!"
- saalweachter 13y ago
  Yumblr!.
- rossjudson 13y ago
  You sir, are Completly Incorrct. Yahumblr!

trendspotter 13y ago

First ever acquisition announced by animated gif :) https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336453536298717184 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336453536298717184

Indyan 13y ago
Well, at least she seems to "get" Tumblr. http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great-workplace-dilemmas-of-our-time http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great-wor...

mherdeg 13y ago

Marissa Mayer's blog post about Yahoo! having acquired Tumblr leads with the "Keep Calm and Carry On" propaganda image that the British government generated during the war but never used because it was only meant to be rolled out as a very last resort in the emergency situation that Nazis had occupied England.

beseku 13y ago
I'm assuming you don't live or visit the UK often, as that poster is everywhere and is used in various forms by huge numbers of companies. There is absolutely no political subtext to its use anymore. It's a meme, the equivalent to using a cat image.
- aetimmes 13y ago
  A meme that Tumblr uses pretty frequently, at that.
- shardling 13y ago
  It's actually pretty damn common in the US these days, too.
- mherdeg 13y ago
  I live and work in central London. Having seen the poster everywhere for a while now, it has been hard to avoid learning a bit about the image's history, including the recent hilarity with the EU trademark ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On-souvenirs.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over-Ke... ) and the image's organic growth in popularity from 2005 ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm ). I think it's funny to see people use things in apparent ignorance of their historical context; for example I was totally bummed that http://www.gophercon.com/ http://www.gophercon.com/ wasn't about the protocol.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

dhotson 13y ago

“We promise not to screw it up.”

jaggederest 13y ago
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick#Death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick#Death
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jhowell 13y ago
Like a race car driver saying, "don't hit the wall... don't hit the wall" then bang, into the wall. Not being in Yahoo's shoes I don't know what I'd say. But I don't think that anything could be said to ease the concerns of the acquired customers. Actions speak louder than words and words can sometimes cloud actions.

mark_l_watson 13y ago

Dog food, eaten. Very clever of her to use Tumblr to comment on the acquisition. Now I am curious enough to get a Tumblr account and play with it.

virtuz 13y ago
Really, clever and not obvious?

kmfrk 13y ago

She's got a great sense of humour. Love the missing "e" in "mayr".

apas 13y ago
How true.
Domenic_S 13y ago
So web 2.0.
brown9-2 13y ago
Seems like her full name was taken.
- Killswitch 13y ago
  She could have reserved it to stop squatters, and used the "mayr" version. Edit: She just confirmed it: https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872

supercoder 13y ago

"Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure" What exactly is this 'personalization technology' ? And could you just do http://google.com?q=site:tumblr.com http://google.com?q=site:tumblr.com and save a quick billion ?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jayzalowitz 13y ago
cross network information pollination changes the equation.
greyman 13y ago
They will probably force users to merge their tumblr and yahoo identity into one (similar to flickr).

yarapavan 13y ago

acquires or aquires?

pizu 13y ago

Did anyone tell Marissa that Tumblr is free? Spending $1.1 billion just to post a single post, seems just like a huge waste of cash...

sigkill 13y ago
Save the snark, human. It's free for others because she chose to plunk the B.
31reasons 13y ago
User attention is not free. Its not money but its not free. Isn't that the story of the last 10 years?
crisnoble 13y ago
Facebook is free. Google is free. LinkedIn is free. In fact Yahoo is free. Why would the freeness of tumblr have any negative effect on your analysis of this deal?

chiph 13y ago

We will operate Tumblr independently. This might be the way for Yahoo to succeed - operate as a holding company, plus optionally provide core services (identity management) to their independent properties.

quackerhacker 13y ago
I agree with you here! I think Mayer posting on Tumblr is a sign of her commitment and acknowledgement (obviously) to Tumblr....I hope more Yahoo employees (ESP Mayer), continue to use Tumblr consistently to feel what their users feel and be committed.
joonix 13y ago
So, no synergies other than ... authentication services? Then what's the point of buying them? Remember, Tumblr is barely making any money and was running out of cash. If Yahoo has nothing to offer them other than "identity management" and bureaucracy, then this is yet another failed Yahoo acquisition.
- chiph 13y ago
  My (unspoken) assumption is that Yahoo management can successfully monetize Tumblr. Is Tumblr going to continue to bleed dollars? Yes, in the short term. But the Yahoo board is willing to invest 1.1B in them, and obviously think that in the future the Tumblr services will be a complementary product offering and will become profitable. Hopefully Marissa & the board have a roadmap for fixing & growing the firm, and that this wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. There are other likely synergies - back office functions (accounting, HR, etc), but also ad serving. I don't personally know how good the Yahoo ad network is, but by all accounts, it has got to be better than Tumblr's. I think the key change that has to happen is that acquisitions have to have the choice in picking a Yahoo technology to adopt (or not..) and that it can't be forced down their throat. And if Marissa is smart, she'll block any Yahoo people asking questions like "So, why aren't you using our fabulous tech?", because merely asking the question takes away valuable time.
  - 13y ago

tree_of_item 13y ago

Did someone squat marissamayer.tumblr.com? Why would she not just take it? It seems to be empty.

lucian1900 13y ago
I think it's supposed to be disemvoweled as "tumblr" is.
- DJNewStyle 13y ago
  I thoroughly enjoy your use of "disemvoweled". Did you coin this?
  - scott_s 13y ago
    I was curious, too, but no: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
baby 13y ago
Inside joke : https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872 https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872

caycep 13y ago

Aside from the infrastructure and potential monetization capabilities Yahoo brings to Tumblr, I suspect the major undercurrent here is Mayer becoming a mentor to Dave Karp. I don't see this deal happening w/ just any other pair of CEO's; I don't think the crew running the show before MM could really tell you what Tumblr was. Maybe Jerry Yang, but certainly not the interim team.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- jlgreco 13y ago
  Why is it that brand new users are allowed to comment?
  - baby 13y ago
    So that's why his nickname is in green! I always thought they were like very important persons.
    - jonnathanson 13y ago
      VIP, but in this case, the "I" doesn't stand for "important."
ssupra 13y ago
Looks like money is no concern to Marissa when she wants to get laid. (Reposted because it's funny and censorship is not.)
- granitepail 13y ago
  it's not funny and that was not censorship. it was an expression of collective disappointment at a user's attempt to marginalize the CEO of a large and influential tech company made purely on the grounds of her being a woman. it's an interesting move for yahoo! and i'm curious as to see how their revitalization campaign plays out.

spdy 13y ago

Seems like a good time to sell to Yahoo! You get a lot of money and you can negotiate dream terms. Yahoo! is very desperate to get an audience and they need one. If you exclude Flickr which Yahoo! service did you use in the last years, for myself none.

robomartin 13y ago
I use their email. I prefer it to gmail and it is not subject to Google's robo-shutdowns.

alex_doom 13y ago

I hope they're not forced to use Yahoo's awful login system the way Flickr was.

mohitz 13y ago

The blog heading is too apt. Marissa Mayer's tumblr :)

baby 13y ago

This is great. I see many important points in this declaration: * animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well. * "We will operate Tumblr independently" : I think this is exactly what everyone hoped, and what all big acquisition should be like (Facebook did that with Instagram and it's great!). That means NSFW will stay NSFW. * "David Karp will remain CEO." The most qualified people to grow Tumblr are the people already in place. This is great, everyone's relieved. I really think Yahoo's back in the game now. I would never have used yahoo before. Now hundred thousands of people are. And they are from the new generation.

fakeer 13y ago
On Tumblr till quite late the only blogs(photo/video blogs) I followed were NSFW. Recently I stumbled upon a few non-NSFWs that I like.
- JohnQUnknown 13y ago
  What's this non-NSFW madness you talk about? Most of the beauty of Tumblr for many of us has been the lax of TOS enforcement from the people at Tumblr, this has rendered countless of blogs ranging from vanilla porn to the most gore-ish and deviated pictures I have seen in my life. I think I'll just sit back and watch how this develops, I am an avid Tumblr user and I would really hate it if they started to take away my much beloved NSFW blogs.
magicg 13y ago
Yeah I love the gif!
dominotw 13y ago
' animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well' Why is this such a big thing, what is so hard to grasp about tumblr.
- bulatb 13y ago
  What's (allegedly) hard to grasp is that Tumblr is Tumblr, not a generic money-engine that eats X dollars worth of fuel and puts out $Y worth of value. Mayer is acknowledging that part of Tumblr's recipe for spitting out that $Y is the culture that the users and the team have made, and that approaching it as if that didn't matter will not work. Whether that's how Tumblr's integration into Yahoo! will actually be treated remains to be seen.

newbie12 13y ago

I never, ever would have predicted that Tumblr would beat Posterous in the blogging platform wars.

seiji 13y ago
Care to elaborate?
- newbie12 13y ago
  There was a point a couple years ago when Posterous was really innovating and Tumblr seemed dead-- the Tumblr staff (CEO?) were ranting at their users and there were technical problems.

shaydoc 13y ago

Has tumblr tumbled ? Shall the cool kids seek a new indie alternative ? Surely this acquisition creates such an opportunity for some Nu upstart ?

timrogers 13y ago

Is there any reason that Tumblr couldn't take the freemium route? It has high engagement, and a passionate audience that might well be willing to pay to keep the same Tumblr they always had, as opposed to a sanitised ad-friendly one. Of course, there's the possibility that its audience won't have the means to pay up, or that people will just go elsewhere.

zaoyang 13y ago

I have mixed feelings about this. Looking at Yahoo's balance sheet, it's 100% of its cash equivalents and 25% of its current assets. On one other hand, the strategic value could be valuable: * Product team that understands the uniqueness of creative community (focus on reblogging, photo blogging, media focus) * Retention of creator community/teen community and its long term SEO potential * An audience that probably provides augmentation to Yahoo's total sites and probably adds unique users on a de-dup basis * There's also the viability of monetizing it the way Twitter/YouTube has monetized by carefully monetizing the users will not pissing off the community On the other hand: * Yahoo doesn't have a good track record of internal executives working with acquisitions * They are still at the stage where their M&A integration is probably nascent (sales/marketing integration, executive alignment, OKR alignment) Hard for me to make an opinion of this, but it is risky give Yahoo's balance sheet.

sc00ter 13y ago

You've got to hand it to her, the 'NSFW?' 'WFH!' image is near genius!

Crake 13y ago

From the notes on the post: "somethingcatchyhere reblogged this from marissamayr and added: you better not fuck this one up “marissa mayer,” if that’s even your real name" Stay classy, tumblr. (Or "stay uninformed," more like.)

jacquesm 13y ago

> We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. What this really says is that even though Yahoo! acquired all of the Tumblr stock it will remain an independent company and Yahoo will not ask for favours or influence Tumblr in any way. So Tumblr will not be absorbed or coerced to do things it would not otherwise do. But then, a few lines down: > The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%. If Tumblr is still independent how does this grow Yahoo!'s audience? > Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. If Tumblr so far saw no reason to require a Yahoo! login and their first move (the ink on the agreement is not even dry yet) is to go for a Yahoo! ID (any other interpretation of that line?) and Yahoo! search then clearly they are not as independent as suggested in the first few lines. I put very little faith in promises made by executives of companies being acquired or the ones doing the acquiring around the time of a major deal. See: http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaMayer http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaM...