Yahoo! Acquires Tumblr, Expanding Its Engagement
Late last night, the Twitterverse and trade press exploded when CEO Marissa Mayer confirmed that Yahoo! had acquired microblogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
A Tumblr acquisition has been speculated for an age, and it’s no wonder why with 300 million users and 900 posts per second, as well as brands like Topman, J Crew, Mashable, College Humour, EMI, Rolling Stone and Comedy Central taking to the platform in order to increase their engagement with target communities.
In the 90’s Yahoo! was, to many, synonymous with ‘the internet’. Once accessed, there was no reason to leave the web portal. You would chat, mail and consume all content under the Yahoo! umbrella.
Since then, there’s no arguing that Yahoo! has had its fair share of stumbling blocks, including several high-profile acquisitions. Remember the sad, slow demise of GeoCities? The growing irrelevance of Flickr? There’s also the question of Yahoo! failing to lead the charge when it comes to promoting creativity in online advertising. All of these setbacks have resulted in industry pundits questioning the company’s ability to keep up with competitors like Google and Bing.
Now, however, over a decade later, Yahoo! appears to be back on its original course for web supremacy, this time with solid leadership at the helm and a roadmap focused on content and social engagement.