1) I think the author completely misses the point of why tumblr is fascinating to us. But i don't think it matters whether we see tumblr as a cool toy (like an

1) I think the author completely misses the point of why tumblr is fascinating to us. But i don't think it matters whether we see tumblr as a cool toy (like an iPhone) or just a well-designed re-tread (like Facebook vs Friendster). Basically, how many people are able to accomplish a valuation of a billion dollars with just a few years' work? And with almost zero revenue to show for it? A vanishingly small group of folks, who may loom large in the consciousness of the tech world but are such incredible statistical outliers that they become newsworthy. of course, not to mention that karp accomplished this while he was so young. And people are naturally fascinated with "lottery ticket" type rewards - fantasy money earned from a few year's work. the man-bites-dog aspect is precisely why we're interested - it isn't what you normally see. 2) we expect old guys to make large business deals - that's what old guys do. and to be honest, the motivations behind M&A generally have nothing to do with "what's good for the customer." it is generally empire building, or reducing competition in the market, improving price negotiation leverage versus major customers. Since business journalists are afraid or too uninformed to call out these true motivations behind corporate M&A, the journalism becomes frighteningly boring. so there's a decent reason that business news is a backwater. and i'm sure the average writer at fortune is fairly annoyed by that. hence this article.