14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo is reportedly eyeing Tumblr for their next buyout. The deal, according to sources, could reach as high as $1 billion (€778 million), which would put it in the same league as Facebook’s Instagram acquisition last year.
So far, Marissa Mayer has stayed away from big acquisitions and has resumed to spending up to the “low hundreds” of millions on small companies.
Since she joined Yahoo nearly a year ago, Mayer has bought ten startups that are meant to help the company strengthen its presence in the mobile world.
However, since the talks about the deal between Yahoo and Tumblr are ranked as “rumors” so far, which means neither company wished to comment on the matter, it seems like Yahoo is aiming higher than going mobile.
Earlier this week, Yahoo’s CFO said that they wanted to get younger users. He mentioned that this involved making themselves cool and visible.
It seemed, at the moment, that he meant that their next marketing campaign was the only one he was thinking of, but it seems like buying Tumblr could also aid in this department.
Since Tumblr focuses heavily on user-generated content, such as text and photos, but also videos, and their target audience is young adults, it seems logical for Yahoo to have their eyes on the company.
“If you could pick a company that fits in with what Marrissa Mayer has demonstrated in her career – aesthetics software technology and fast-growing – you could not land on a better choice,” sources said to AllThingsD.
Tumblr has over 107 million blogs and over 50 billion posts, mostly made by young users. That means a big new audience to Yahoo.
It is also certain that unlike the other acquisitions Yahoo has made over the past months, Tumblr will not close in case they sign the deal.
Just like it happened when Facebook bought Instagram last year, users are surely not going to be too happy about the deal, but, in the end, there’s not much they can do about it.