Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic
Sarah Krouse on wsj.com:
Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content. He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. βItβs just fun,β he said of Tumblr. βWeβre not going to change any of that.β
Great news. I never used Tumblr as a social network, but it was my blog engine for a long time and I enjoyed using it. Anything that promotes people posting under their own domain is good for the web.
Automattic also has a good history of not messing with acquisitions, like Simplenote.
Update: Ursula Perano and Dan Primack on axios.com:
A source familiar with the deal puts the price-tag βwell belowβ $20 million, while another source puts it below $10 million.
Now thatβs a markdown, given that Yahoo paid $1.1 billion in 2013.