14 DAY TRIAL // As companies “fight” over buying Tumblr, Yahoo seems to be the one that is closest to sealing the deal. The price tag? A whopping $1.1 billion (€856 million).
However, the sum doesn’t seem to be big enough for Tumblr, TechCrunch reports, citing sources with knowledge on the matter.
As reported previously, Yahoo is in advanced talks to buy Tumblr.
Furthermore, the company’s board of directors are set to meet on Sunday to discuss the potential deal and to sign off on the sum that is required to buy the blogging platform.
If they don’t come to an agreement and the deal falls through, several other companies also have their eyes on Tumblr.
Forbes reported earlier that both Facebook and Microsoft were interested in buying Tumblr.
As opposed to Yahoo, however, both Facebook and Microsoft have deeper pockets and could afford to buy out the blogging platform without making much of a dent in their finances.
However, Marissa Mayer is apparently pushing hard to close the deal with Tumblr before someone else steals the company from under her nose.
Since she joined Yahoo last summer, Mayer set out to change the path in which the company was headed, focusing on strengthening its presence in the mobile department, but also on attracting a younger audience.
The company’s CFO said earlier this week that they were going to increase their marketing efforts towards this audience in order to bring in some new users. Tumblr falls in line with Mayer’s strategy, and it is said to be a key point in her plans for the company.
By buying Tumblr, Yahoo would gain a lot of young users in one go. Apparently, the deal would still require for David Karp to lead the company, but they should develop a deeper integration with Yahoo’s own platform.
Tumblr has over 100 million blogs on its platform.