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Ben Hollom – Marketing Director, M2 Bespoke
By Ben Hollom
Rumours that Yahoo was buying blogging website Tumblr broke out a few days ago but it looks as if these have been confirmed. According to the Wall Street Journal, which quoted ´people familiar with the matter´, Yahoo´s board has agreed to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion (£720 million).
Tumblr was founded by David Karp six years ago and has since then become a favourite platform for bloggers, primarily younger ones, who have been using it for posting blogs and images. After the acquisition, Tumblr will still continue to operate as an independent business, sources cited by the news source explained.
The move seems to follow Yahoo´s new CEO Marissa Mayer´s plan for making the brand more appealing to young consumers. The Wall Street Journal commented that buying a social media platform with a developed user-base and high ratings among millions of users could help Yahoo to achieve its goal. In March, Tumblr had 117 million unique users worldwide, compared to 58 million 12 months earlier, according to data from comScore.
Over the course of its existence, Tumblr has mostly focused on building on its user-base and its chief executive, David Karp, has not regarded the issue of earning money very seriously, which is a common pattern of behaviour of start-up Internet companies, experts commented. While previously Karp was heard saying he was against advertising, Tumblr welcomed advertisers for the first time last year. The company´s financial results pointed to a modest revenue of $13 million (£8.5 million) in 2012.
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