Tumblr will be joining Yahoo | Hacker News Reader

Tumblr will be joining Yahoo

staff.tumblr.com

63 pointstwapi19 comments

How many different ways have we heard the same thing?

> So what’s new? Simply, Tumblr gets better faster. The work ahead of us remains the same – and we still have a long way to go! – but with more resources to draw from.

Wow, someday someone's going to get caught plagiarizing. An acquisition rarely leads to "more resources to draw from" and more often leads to neglect. Yahoo clearly has a lot riding on this deal and will surely make a strong effort to disprove the doubters on this one. However, unless they're banking the company on Tumblr (doubtful), then it's hard to imagine more resources going into Tumblr.

The only time a large company's resources bring value is when the acquiring company has legal and lobbying resources a small upstart could never afford. YouTube and PayPal are probably the best examples of this.

YouTube probably benefited from the deep pockets of Google since it had no monetization strategy and used crazy amounts of bandwidth and storage (especially for the time).

Bandwidth and storage costs were surely a growth pain. However, the thing that was inevitably going to sink them was the $1 billion lawsuit they were facing from Viacom.

Signed off in true tumblr form:

  Fuck yeah,
  David

Yeah maybe I'm just cynical.. but something about that just seems a little forced, like 'look we're definitely still cool, see i swore!'.

Also comes off like he's slightly resisting the merge with Yahoo, which seems a little strange given they've just dropped 1 billion on them.

Totally possible. I was referring to how fuckyeahX.tumblr.com is a popular formula for Tumblr blogs that focus on X.

As in 'fuck yeah, 1.1 billion times'. Unfortunately this won't last long, meaning David staying as the current CEO. I've seen this over and over, recently (at least recent in my mind) in the example of WOOT where all their important pre-acquisition staff left 6 months - 1 year later.

People that start successful projects from scratch don't like deviations from the main mission statement they have set in the beginning.

classic

If I just made $250 million dollars (or, let's say conservatively, after everything, $50 million dollars), I think I'd be all right with ending everything I said for the next month with "Fuck yeah!"

Why is it so common to refer to Yahoo! in the first person as "Marissa?"

I know she's the CEO, but I never hear anyone call Microsoft "Steve," Google "Sergey and Larry," AirBnB "Joe," Apple "Tim," etc. Why is Marissa such a big deal?

You'd hear it depending on the formality of the piece, I think. Maybe there is a gender bias, but I've definitely read those persons' first names, especially in less formal writing (and Tumblr has a relationship with Yahoo! and Marissa after all).

it's about giving Yahoo a new chance. nobody likes yahoo, people think it's an outdated company that screws up everything.

but marissa brought a new hope as she is a beloved ex-googler and people want this to work out, thus it's not yahoo that bought tumblr, it's marissa. she is the one who is doing exciting things, not that outdated loser that screwed flickr.

I think that her personal brand is a plus for Yahoo, so I doubt that she or Yahoo! minds this.

> We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing.

Spending 1.1 billion on a company that says it's "not turning purple" may have some impact on morale in Sunnyvale and on Wall St.

Could someone explain something to me? When yahoo pays the 1.1B, who does that money go to? Does it go to the original investors apportioned out based on how much equity they have?

It goes to the stock holders. For a company at Tumblr's stage, probably about 55% of stock will be owned by VCs/angels/other investors, 20% by employees, and maybe 25% by founders.

It will also include signing bonuses and golden handcuffs for employees, though that will be tiny relative to 1.1B, so it probably doesn't change the numbers much.

obviously worth a 'congrats' for a 7 year old company which build a pretty great community...

Does an "all cash" deal imply something about Yahoo stock valued as bearish?

2 views - Yahoo! values their stock more than their cash - Tumblr and/or BOD doesn't value Yahoo! stock as much as cash

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