Yahoo is reportedly interested in buying Tumblr for a price of around $1 billion. Tumblr may be a great asset for the struggling older company thanks to it's numerous members and very young demographic.
AllThingsD reported yesterday that the two companies were in negotiations and that Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer was in talks with the Tumblr team. According to the original report, Yahoo hopes that Tumblr will be able to reinvigorate their user-base with fresh young blood and also give them a foray into mobile marketing, an area with which Yahoo has had difficulty.
Tumblr reports it has around 108 million blogs, over 50 billion posts and somewhere around 100 million visitors every month if ComScore's data is correct. And according to Forbes they are looking to make $100 million thanks to new advertising initiatives.
Reportedly, Yahoo's biggest fears are that Facebook may swoop in and pull the rug from under their feet. If Facebook wants to buy Tumblr they have both the money and the sales pitch to do it, and Yahoo might be left out to dry having to look elsewhere for their shot of public appeal.
None of this has been officially confirmed just yet, but there is enough buzz and there are also whispers from "unnamed sources" that it's most likely happening. However, everything is still just talk right now and talks can easily break down.
Source: Gigaom
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