Yahoo! to buy blog-maker Tumblr for $1.1B - report
NEW YORK -
The board of Yahoo! has agreed
to a deal to purchase the popular
blogging platform Tumblr for
$1.1 billion, the Wall Street
Journal reported Sunday.
Yahoo! did not immediately
return AFP's calls for
confirmation, but CEO Marissa
Mayer has scheduled a news
conference in New York Monday
at which the company said it will
unveil "something special."
Reports last week said Yahoo! is
eyeing the move to attract more
users from the key 18- to 24-
year-old age bracket, and that the
Internet pioneer sees the fast-
growing Tumblr as one of the
"coolest" sites with young
Internet users.
Yahoo! has been looking at a
range of acquisitions since Mayer
took over as chief executive last
year and vowed to revive the
company, which has faded in the
face of competition from Google.
Founded in 2007 and
headquartered in New York,
Tumblr says it has more than 107
million blogs, 50 billion postings
in 12 languages and 175
employees. The website ranking
site Alexa lists Tumblr as number
32 in terms of global popularity.
If the acquisition takes place, it
would be the biggest for Yahoo!
under Mayer and come in the
wake of other pricey deals for
startups, such as Facebook's
acquisition of the photo app
Instagram for stock worth $1
billion at the time. — Agence
France-Press
