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Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

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Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#111

Post by randomsearch »

lifeformed wrote: post #79
agotterer wrote: post #75

I hope this isn't a silly question... Reports say that tumblr is running low on cash and could only afford to operate for the next few months. This deal is going to take a few months (article says next quarter) to close. Is it not possible that they would run out of money before the deal officially closes?

I'm sure Yahoo could help them out with that.

Indeed. This seems to be the motivation behind the sale. I'm sure David Karp would have liked to keep tumblr independent, despite the huge payday, but it seems to me that he failed to develop a cohesive business model.

I loved the focus he put on the market sector he was serving, and I share his hatred of intrusive advertising, but he didn't present a realistic alternative. It's a shame - we keep losing innovative businesses that don't think enough about long-term business models, so we have to hop onto the next big thing until it too gets snapped up. Much as I dislike Facebook, you have to respect Zuckerberg for not selling out... at least he's tried to build something sustainable.

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#113

Post by majani »

Swizec wrote: post #21
btipling wrote: post #14

Maybe this could have been Posterous had they won that battle with Tumblr. Posterous had the superior product early on, but for some reason it never caught on. I wonder how that works, who wins for what reasons. It does not seem to be for product or technology reasons as I think Posterous had Tumblr beat. It's almost luck and magic who picks up the right kind of early users that lead to success. Admittedly it did see…

Porn. Tumblr has porn. As always, when two technologies are battling, the one porn picks will win.

Counterpoint: YouTube vs Dailymotion

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#114

Post by frozenport »

paganel wrote: post #78
benjamincburns wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a strange and interesting theory. I can think of a few anecdotal places where this is the case, but I wonder if anyone has done a study of porn as a predictor of platform success/failure... Edit : Just thinking about the business of porn, this is probably a decent heuristic for simplicity and cost effectiveness. Porn is usually very low budget (compared to other mass market media), with a very high volume of c…

> but I wonder if anyone has done a study of porn as a predictor of platform success/failure... For better or worse, FB could be a good example of "platform success" that partially relies on that. It's not porn per se, just beach/bikini photos of one's lady-friends, or his work-mates, or the wife's friends.

Perhaps, but what do think of the JCPenny catalog?

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#115

Post by Spooky23 »

danso wrote: post #72
shanelja wrote: post #45

There seems to be a massive anti-Yahoo struggle going on in HN at the moment but I feel we need to look at this impartially. For better or for worse, the fate of the company is tied directly to the actions of Marissa Mayer now, this is no longer 1999 and Yahoo is no longer the same company. They have this image (which they rightly deserve) of being a big, bumbling ancient Behemoth of a company which provides no real…

These are good points, but I don't think it's possible to not see Yahoo as a behemoth. It's a big company, with lots of executives and fiefdoms. Just because there's a new CEO doesn't mean the kind of change that needs to happen will happen (and conversely, it's wrong to lay all the blame at Meyer's feet if things don't turn out well). Case in point, look at how badly JCPenney fared after Apple retail exec, Ron Johns…

The current business trend is to disrupt and unroot established stuff in large organizations. It's always a high-risk, high-reward endeavor.

The Ron Johnson story is interesting, as he was so successful at Target and Apple. There was definitely alot of ego and refusal to adjust to the signals the market was giving JCP. But the store within a store concept and lack of clutter is a big deal and will ultimately serve the company well.

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#116

Post by jvm »

danso wrote: post #72
shanelja wrote: post #45

There seems to be a massive anti-Yahoo struggle going on in HN at the moment but I feel we need to look at this impartially. For better or for worse, the fate of the company is tied directly to the actions of Marissa Mayer now, this is no longer 1999 and Yahoo is no longer the same company. They have this image (which they rightly deserve) of being a big, bumbling ancient Behemoth of a company which provides no real…

These are good points, but I don't think it's possible to not see Yahoo as a behemoth. It's a big company, with lots of executives and fiefdoms. Just because there's a new CEO doesn't mean the kind of change that needs to happen will happen (and conversely, it's wrong to lay all the blame at Meyer's feet if things don't turn out well). Case in point, look at how badly JCPenney fared after Apple retail exec, Ron Johns…

> Case in point, look at how badly JCPenney fared after Apple retail exec, Ron Johnson, became CEO for just 17 months

Not that I'm disagreeing with anything you're saying, but I would like to point out that the changes Johnson implemented are now widely seen as terrible mistakes on his part, alienating huge swaths of the existing customer base. The problem wasn't that "fiefdoms" got in the way of reform, it's that the reforms were actually just poor choices.

Conversely, you could argue that Apple was similarly a huge dying behemoth when Jobs took the reins.

A CEO can make a huge difference on the upside and the downside (and of course they can also make no difference at all).

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#117

Post by nowarninglabel »

swalkergibson wrote: post #109
btipling wrote: post #14

Maybe this could have been Posterous had they won that battle with Tumblr. Posterous had the superior product early on, but for some reason it never caught on. I wonder how that works, who wins for what reasons. It does not seem to be for product or technology reasons as I think Posterous had Tumblr beat. It's almost luck and magic who picks up the right kind of early users that lead to success. Admittedly it did see…

The Window and the Mirror As part of our research, we interviewed Alan L. Wurtzel, the Level 5 leader responsible for turning Circuit City from a ramshackle company on the edge of bankruptcy into one of America's most successful electronics retailers. In the 15 years after its transition date in 1982, Circuit City outperformed the market 18.5:1. We asked Wurtzel to list the top five factors in his company's transform…

Yeah so much for Good to Great, companies that are supposed to be long-term winners and yet 2 years later Circuit City was already showing severe strain, and 7 years later it was completely bankrupt.

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#118

Post by UVB-76 »

freehunter wrote: post #67
UVB-76 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...not to mention Facebook took over as the place for most people to share photos with their friends

I don't think Flickr and Facebook/Instragram really compete, except in the situation where people didn't need Flickr but Facebook/Instagram didn't exist yet. Flickr is more for professional photographers, not a social network for youths to share their photos with their group. If Flickr loses professional photogs, then they're hurting. But they haven't yet. Instagram is not going to replace Flickr for Flickr's core au…

I think flickr gradually became a place "more for professional photographers" as the rest of its uses were eroded by other social media sites.

Re: Yahoo to Acquire Tumblr

#119

Post by andycroll »

smountcastle wrote: post #35

Wow, so does this make Marco Arment a millionaire? Apparently he still has a financial stake in Tumblr: http://qr.ae/pKNI7

Not according to him as he was technically an employee, I did some analysis...

http://andycroll.com/2013/05/20/tumblr-founder-shares-and-di...

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