Well, Yahoo isn't going to shut down Tumblr, I can tell you that much--at least not until it's already been floundering under their care for years. They might change Tumblr in ways the userbase doesn't like, but they're not going to shut it down--$1.1 billion is not an aquihire, which is what's being chronicled up there with most of the "incredible journeys".
(For others following along: An aquihire is what happens when you need/want specific tech talent that's hard to get. You find a wee startup company doing what you want that talent to do and just buy them up. LJ was in most respects an aquihire for Six Apart, the only thing not fitting the mold is LJ actually brought in income so they didn't shut it down, and it was valuable enough to the Russian demographic that they could sell it when they wanted to get rid of it. But they took the tech talent like Brad and set them to work developing Vox. Which never took off how they wanted and they shut down anyway. But they definitely made their money back for LJ.)
Meyer has plans for Tumblr, and it fills a badly needed gap in Yahoo's portfolio. We can't say what those plans *are* yet, but they're not shutting the sucker down, that's for sure.
OK, that's really interesting! I have only heard the vaguest of rumours about the deal, I'm obviously looking in the wrong places. I still don't think Tumblr actually has a business model, so I am intrigued (in a slightly terrified way) to see how Yahoo reckon they're going to monetize it. But it makes sense that they've bought it to use it, not to shut down a rival or poach the programming talent.
Tumblr has started to have a business model! Of course, it's ads, but what they're attempting to do is better paid brand advertising rather than just your basic dreadful CPM treadmill. They sell premium themes/styles, but I think that's not a huge money maker.
There was a piece on Buzzfeed about how Tumblr has the 18-24 demographic which Yahoo wants to capture.... and well, it wasn't the best written article which is why I'm not bothering to track down a link, but that is reasonably compelling point.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-05-20 04:21 pm (UTC)(For others following along: An aquihire is what happens when you need/want specific tech talent that's hard to get. You find a wee startup company doing what you want that talent to do and just buy them up. LJ was in most respects an aquihire for Six Apart, the only thing not fitting the mold is LJ actually brought in income so they didn't shut it down, and it was valuable enough to the Russian demographic that they could sell it when they wanted to get rid of it. But they took the tech talent like Brad and set them to work developing Vox. Which never took off how they wanted and they shut down anyway. But they definitely made their money back for LJ.)
Meyer has plans for Tumblr, and it fills a badly needed gap in Yahoo's portfolio. We can't say what those plans *are* yet, but they're not shutting the sucker down, that's for sure.
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Date: 2013-05-20 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-20 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-21 02:04 am (UTC)