The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr • Hacker News Board

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#11

Post by RexRollman » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

inmygarage wrote: post #10

Thoughts on why this was an all-cash deal as opposed to similar comps (Instagram, YouTube) which were cash/stock mix?

Maybe they don't have faith in Yahoo's future?

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#12

Post by jamescun » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

I wonder how this will pan out for Tumblr with Marissa Meyer at the helm. If we look at Flick (bought by yahoo in 2005), it hasn't seen much innovation or new features in the last 8 years and has been mostly coasting. I wonder if this will be the case for Tumblr under Marissa's leadership.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#13

Post by minimaxir » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #9

minimaxir wrote: post #4

I'd recommend watching the #yahoo! feed on Tumblr in order to watch the Tumblr community's reaction, and see the inevitable hilarity. (Not providing a link due to high probability of NSFW content. Search for #yahoo! on Tumblr.)

Link to copy (HN doesn't like ! in links): http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yahoo !

Another reason I didn't put a link even with a caveat is because link parsers don't like exclamation marks. But it looks like the non-exclamation mark feed today wasn't as bad as yesterday, so proceed at your own risk.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#14

Post by pt » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:43 PM UTC

randall wrote: post #8

jcdavis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yahoo is leakier than most - Kara Fisher seems to know anything that happens there

*swisher

Heard Kara "Fisher" for the first time, and not sure why, but I like the sound of it.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#15

Post by jalev » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:43 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #4

I'd recommend watching the #yahoo! feed on Tumblr in order to watch the Tumblr community's reaction, and see the inevitable hilarity. (Not providing a link due to high probability of NSFW content. Search for #yahoo! on Tumblr.)

And like everything else that happens via Tumblr, this entire series of events will be forgotten in less than a week, regardless of the outcome.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#16

Post by dave5104 » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:44 PM UTC

jamescun wrote: post #12

I wonder how this will pan out for Tumblr with Marissa Meyer at the helm. If we look at Flick (bought by yahoo in 2005), it hasn't seen much innovation or new features in the last 8 years and has been mostly coasting. I wonder if this will be the case for Tumblr under Marissa's leadership.

And wasn't one of Marissa's plans when she came aboard to try and revive Flickr, since she saw it as a big asset? Not that it's jumped leaps and bounds since then, but I would think that she'd want to nurture tumblr a bit.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#17

Post by [deleted] » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#18

Post by jalev » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:49 PM UTC

jamescun wrote: post #12

I wonder how this will pan out for Tumblr with Marissa Meyer at the helm. If we look at Flick (bought by yahoo in 2005), it hasn't seen much innovation or new features in the last 8 years and has been mostly coasting. I wonder if this will be the case for Tumblr under Marissa's leadership.

Maybe Yahoo's involvement with Tumblr will be limited, much like Conde Nast's management of Reddit.

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#19

Post by pavs » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

RexRollman wrote: post #11

inmygarage wrote: post #10

Thoughts on why this was an all-cash deal as opposed to similar comps (Instagram, YouTube) which were cash/stock mix?

Maybe they don't have faith in Yahoo's future?

Or maybe yahoo's stock is not as sought after like it was for google (and still is)?

Re: The Yahoo board has approved a deal to pay $1.1 billion in cash for Tumblr

#20

Post by larrys » Sun, May 19, 2013, 4:51 PM UTC

jamescun wrote: post #12

I wonder how this will pan out for Tumblr with Marissa Meyer at the helm. If we look at Flick (bought by yahoo in 2005), it hasn't seen much innovation or new features in the last 8 years and has been mostly coasting. I wonder if this will be the case for Tumblr under Marissa's leadership.

"it hasn't seen much innovation"

For the existing team at tumblr (say anyone who has stock that is) things like this end up being a buzz kill after it settles in. Working towards something is fun and motivating. Once you get it things simply change (speaking from personal experience and observation here (also as you are pointing out).

For example, would you like to get paid now for all the work you are going to do for the next 10 years in advance and still find it as fun and challenging? If you were an athlete would you want to know in advance that you were going to win 2 medals in each of the next olympics? To me that takes the fun out of things. I think it's obvious why things are different after money changes hands.

In this situation how do you show up for work at twitter and still be creative after essentially the "game", if you want to call it that, is won? You will probably itch to get over to a new challenge. Not to be cliche but the journey is a big part of the picture.