Yahoo yesterday announced that it would acquire blogging platform Tumblr for US$1.1 billion, saying the two companies “share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas.”
The two firms confirmed weekend reports of the tie-up, in a deal which helps the struggling Internet pioneer connect with Tumblr’s youthful users.
The companies said the deal is worth US$1.1 billion, “substantially all of which is payable in cash.”
Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer said the fast-growing Tumblr would operate independently, but that the groups would “work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.”
“We promise not to screw it up,” Mayer said in a blog post on Tumblr, as Yahoo moved its official company blog to the new platform.
“Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO,” she wrote.
“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,” Mayer added.
In a statement to “the Tumblr community,” Karp said: “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. 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.”
The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. Yahoo has been looking at a range of possible acquisitions since Mayer took the helm last year and vowed to revive the company, which has faded in the face of competition from Google.
Tumblr could be key to Yahoo’s strategy because of its popularity with younger Internet users. A survey this year conducted by the online data group Survata found Tumblr more popular than Facebook among those aged 13 to 25.
While Tumblr generates very little cash, bringing it in the Yahoo family could offer the potential for new advertising and other revenue sources.
Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies said the deal “brings a social element that Yahoo! is missing and a set of new users.”
However, Kay added that “paying [US]$1.1 billion for a company with [US]$13 million in revenue seems a little nuts to me ... Those numbers aren’t even earnings, which are surely negative. So, even if Tumblr survives intact, Yahoo is unlikely to get its [US]$1.1 billion back over any interval that falls within a human lifetime.”
Founded in 2007, Tumblr says it has more than 108 million blogs, 50 billion postings in 12 languages and 175 employees.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy