Social Media Reacts To Yahoo’s Deal With Tumblr
Yahoo gets the cool, David Karp gets a substantial amount of cash, Tumblr gets Yahoo’s ad network, and users get grumpy.
Tumblr is becoming part of the Yahoo stable. The deal, rumors of which surfaced on Friday last week, was revealed yesterday by AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher and confirmed this morning by Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer.
First ever acquisition announced by animated gif 🙂 @yahoo is acquiring @tumblr. finance.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-acq…#keepcalmandcarryon
— marissamayer (@marissamayer) May 20, 2013
The deal cost Sunnyvale $1.1 billion, and ties Tumblr founder David Karp to the Internet firm for at least four years. He will retain a lot of control over the microblog which he founded in 2007–plus a great deal of cash. And Yahoo gets a taste of Tumblr’s cool factor. Social media reactions to the news are mixed:
Gutsy call: “Either this management team is going to turn Yahoo around or be the ones who squandered its asset base.” nytimes.com/2013/05/20/tec…
— Tony Wang (@TonyW) May 20, 2013
“Certainly Yahoo has a track record of taking cool and making it uncool…” latimes.com/business/la-fi…
— Brian Solis (@briansolis) May 20, 2013
@fastcompany @addythebaddy Teen focused, love this approach. Big/engaged market.
— Jason Festa (@typeoh) May 17, 2013
@fastcompany Great idea for Yahoo, as long as they don’t mess with it.
— Joe Gaffney (@j_gaffney) May 17, 2013
It’s like a mom trying to be hip “@fastcompany: Your thoughts on Yahoo possibly buying Tumblr? Good idea, bad idea? trib.al/PWMXVSr”
— Lois Lee (@simpleelois) May 17, 2013
So, what’s in it for Tumblr, aside from user complaints that the site has sold out to the man? It gets access to Yahoo’s ad network. Karp had also been searching for a COO to help him with the “infrastructure” of the business.
Over on Tumblr, the wailing and teeth-gnashing was even more pronounced, with some people heralding the deal as the death of Tumblr, calling out Yahoo for its “mediocrity,” and generally being a less than optimistic about the deal.
What do you think? Is this a wise move by Yahoo, or is this a Tumblr deal-breaker for you?
[Image: Flickr user torbakhopper]
