Yahoo and Tumblr announced Monday morning that Yahoo has officially acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash.
In the release, the companies noted that “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.”
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer also announced the acquisition on her own Tumblr, while Tumblr CEO David Karp wrote about it on Tumblr’s staff blog.
Tumblr has over 300 million monthly unique visitors, according to the release. (comScore had pegged the site’s April traffic at 124 million uniques.) The companies say that half of Tumblr’s users use its mobile app, and reiterated one of the reasons that Yahoo was willing to shell out over a billion dollars for a company whose revenues were less than $15 million last year: “The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo is expected to grow Yahoo’s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.”
“Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission — to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve — certainly isn’t changing,” Tumblr CEO David Karp said in a statement. “But 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.”
“Tumblr is redefining creative expression online,” Yahoo’s Mayer said. “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.”
Yahoo and Tumblr are holding a conference call at 9 AM ET and we will be on the call.
6:02 AM
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Yahoo + Tumblr = !!
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!
We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.
Tumblr has built an amazing place to follow the world’s creators. From art to architecture, fashion to food, Tumblr hosts 105 million different blogs. With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of thefastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent onsite each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app, and those users do an average of 7 sessions per day. Tumblr’s tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. 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%.
In terms of working together, Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.
As I’ve said before, companies are all about people. Getting to know the Tumblr team has been really amazing. I’ve long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of those who create them. That’s why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I’ve ever met. He’s also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. His respect for Tumblr’s community of creators is awesome, and I’m absolutely delighted to have him and his entire team join Yahoo!.
Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users, design — and building experiences that delight and inspire the world every day.
— Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!
* The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second half of the year. More information about the news can be found in the press release we issued today.
5:55 AM
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Yahoo just bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer explained her move in a Tumblr blog post.
It reads:
Tumblr. + Yahoo! = !!
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!
We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is
incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr
independently. David Karp
will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and
irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower
creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience
they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.
Tumblr has built an amazing place to
follow the world’s creators. From art to architecture, fashion to food,
Tumblr hosts 105 million different blogs. With more than 300 million
monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of
thefastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts
per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent onsite each month. On
mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app, and
those users do an average of 7 sessions per day.
Tumblr’s tremendous
popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all
ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network.
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%.
In terms of working together, Tumblr can
deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to
help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love.
In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more
arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences.
The two companies will also work together to create advertising
opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.
As I’ve said before, companies are all
about people. Getting to know the Tumblr team has been really amazing.
I’ve long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel
the spirit and demeanor of those who create them. That’s why it was no
surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic
people I’ve ever met. He’s also one of the most perceptive, capable
entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. His respect for Tumblr’s community of
creators is awesome, and I’m absolutely delighted to have him and his
entire team join Yahoo!.
Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to
make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users,
design — and building experiences that delight and inspire the world
every day.
5:40 AM
No comments
Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1billion: Founder David Karp is next tech tycoon
BILLION dollar deal makes 26-year-old America's next tech tycoon: High school drop-out behind blogging site Tumblr sells it to Marissa Mayer's Yahoo
- New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer believes purchase of mico-blogging site will be a 'stake in the ground' for her tenure as head of the tech giant
- Board approached all-cash purchase on Sunday, despite Tumblr having only $13million in revenue last year
- David Karp founded Tumblr in his mother's Manhattan apartment in 2007
- Site boasts 100million users and 90million daily blog posts
David Karp, the 26-year-old founder of blogging site Tumblr, has just made to make a lot of money - almost in spite of himself.
Yahoo's board of directors agreed on Sunday to buy his wildly popular blogging platform, which boasts 100million users and 90million posts per day, for $1.1billion cash.
The deal could make the native New Yorker the latest 20-something tech billionaire, even though he was publicly opposed, even just last year, to selling the company he founded out of his mother's small Manhattan apartment in 2007.
On Sunday afternoon, it was revealed Yahoo's board approved the purchase of Tumblr, despite its revenue of only $13million last year. Even that figure was only made possible after $125million in capital investments.
Rich man: David Karp, who founded Tumblr in 2007
in his mother's Manhattan apartment, just made hundreds of millions of
dollars after his company was purchased by Yahoo
Moving on up: Karp lives with his girlfriend
Rachel Eakley, a graduate student and chef, in a modest apartment in
Manhattan's West Village
Miss Eakley has been Karp's constant companion at public events for several years
Tumblr, which is a mico-blogging platform for quickly posting pictures, text and video, also functions as a social media site.
Its platform manages to blend elements of all of the major social networking sites. Sharing and posting photos and simple and easy, like Instagram. Gifs moving images, pictures, and videos are all easy to share. But, users follow other Tumblr blogs and compile news feeds, making the site similar to Facebook and Twitter.
The easy, simple layout of Tumblr blogs has spawned diverse, quirky, blogs. An enormously popular Tumblr called '#whatshouldwecallme' features a series of animated gifs explaining the reactions to daily life of a 20-something woman.
However, celebrities like Joe Jonas and Lady GaGa also have popular Tumblr pages and companies like the shoemaker Col Haan use the site as a creative way to market their products.
Tumblr is also popular with many pornstars and features numerous sexually-explicit blogs.
Tumblr boasts remarkable loyalty among its users. Some 85percent of Tumblr users make 20 or more posts a month.
Big deal: Marissa Mayer is reportedly staking her reputation as Yahoo CEO on this Tumblr deal
In a 2012 interview with the Guardian, he said he had been swatting away buy-out requests for years.
'Particularly in the first three years, there were a lot of (mergers and acquisitions) people who would pull you aside and you'd think "Well, s***, I could be a pretty rich 23-year-old with very little effort,"' he said.
'We stuck it out. I won't say I really knew why.'
Perhaps the perseverance makes sense to Karp now that he is 'very rich' at age 26.
The deal conjures images of another young man who is very rich - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
At $1.1billion, Tumblr's worth is nowhere near the value of $100billion Facebook, but 29-year-old Zuckerberg's success has become something of a pattern for young, brilliant tech entrepreneurs.
It is unclear how large a stake in the company Karp maintained before the Yahoo deal.
In 2008, he sold a 25percent stake to investors for $750,000.
The investor share of the company was $125million at the time of the deal, according to AllThingsD.
Karp grew up on Manhattan's tony Upper West Side, the son of a music composer father who wrote songs for films and TV shows and a mother who was a teacher.
Very young and very rich: Karp and Eakley, who
enjoy spending their Sunday mornings at brunch in Manhattan's East
Village, are now due for a major lifestyle change
Unlike the famously-dressed-down Mark
Zuckerberg, Karp prefers wearing plaid instead of a hoody. But he's not
afraid to wear a suit, either.
At age 17, he moved to Japan, where he cemented his skill as a programmer and began pitching his ideas to tech companies.
He moved back to New York and sold his services as a consultant. He founded Tumblr in 2007 at age 21 - and it quickly consumed all of his time.
He started up an office in Manhattan and has ardently resisted the lure of moving to Silicon Valley. He also tried to resist the money that the tech world had to offer.
He told the Guardian that he wanted to remain independent - believing he could grow the company by growing ad revenue naturally.
Within a year, though, he was accepting funds from venture capital investors.
He currently lives with his girlfriend in a modest apartment in Manhattan's West Village. Rachel Eakley is a chef and a graduate student studying psychology.
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