Yahoo Inc is acquiring blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash.
The deal will use about 1/5 of Yahoo’s $5.4 billion in cash and marketable securities.
“Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business,” Yahoo said in a statement on Monday.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been meeting with top Tumblr executives, including Tumblr CEO David Karp. The rumors of a potential acquisition come after Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman spoke at JP Morgan’s Global Technology conference about the need for the company to attract the 18-to-24-year-old demographic in an effort to make Yahoo “cool again.”
Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that has grown in popularity over recent years, hosting blogs that have gone on to become or create extremely popular memes.
The potential acquisition would be Mayer’s biggest move since becoming Yahoo CEO in July. Since taking the reins, Mayer has revamped the Yahoo homepage along with Yahoo Mail, and spent millions on smaller acquisitions, including a $30 million purchase of Summly, a mobile news app created by a 17-year-old British developer.
The reported $1 billion price tag for Tumblr would be one of the biggest acquisition deals in tech history. By comparison, Facebook bought photo-sharing service Instagram for $1 billion, but due to Facebook’s stock troubles, the final price Facebook paid was $741 million.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment company said Monday they are investing a combined $300 million into the microblogging site Twitter.
The joint investment with Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Co. follows months of negotiations and represents a strategic stake in Twitter, according to the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based investment firm.
Alwaleed, who has a long history of investing in media and technology, said the deal represents an interest in investing “in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” Read More
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