Yahoo! Takes a Tumblr

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As part of CEO Marissa Mayer's strategy to bolster her Internet company's appeal to the 18- to 24-year-old demographic group, Yahoo! today is expected to announce the $1.1 billion cash purchase of New York-based social blogger Tumblr, according to a report by All Things Digital (www.allthingsd.com), which initially broke the story last week.

Tumblr CEO David Karp reportedly scored a cash windfall from the acquisition and will commit to staying at Yahoo! for four years and remain a force overseeing Tumblr. The original desktop-based platform that has expanded to mobile boasts 107.8 million blogs on its Web site. According to com.score, Tumblr attracted 117 million visitors last month.

The Allthingsd story said Yahoo! will bolster the advertising structure of Tumblr, which claims it garnered $13 million in ad revenue last year. Tumblr reportedly is valued at $800 million. There were no other competitive bidders for Tumblr.

Online Journalism takes a Tumblr--Storyboard Ends Badly

Image via CrunchBase

After a splashy launch last May, Storyboard, which zeroed in on blogging platform users and organizations, is no more.

Tumblr pulled the plug on the editorial content aggregator of Tumblrs, laying off the four-member staff, Tumblr CEO David Karp announced this week. Pink-slipped were Editor-in-chief Chris Mohny, formerly of Gawker, Executive Editor and Daily Beast alumna Jessica Bennett, along with Editorial Director Christopher Price and Sky Dylan-Robbins, Storyboard's editorial producer, according to articles by Paidcontent.org and Techcrunch.com.

As Tumblr approaches its sixth birthday on the cusp of operating in the black, it decided to jettison the revenue-deprived Storyboard, which offered few tangible benefits to its sponsors.