Pioneering Internet firm Yahoo! rose to stardom in the personal
computer era while blogging platform Tumblr has won fans in a world of
smartphones, tablets and social networking.
The following is a brief breakdown of the companies following Monday's news that Yahoo! will acquire Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
- Yahoo! was founded in 1994 by Stanford University graduate students
David Filo and Jerry Yang and incorporated the following year.
- Yahoo! was originally a website referred to as "Jerry's guide to
the worldwide web" and was designed as a searchable index of online
offerings.
- Yahoo! reports that more than a half-billion people visit its
websites, which include a free web-based email service, each month.
- Microsoft Corporation in early 2008 tried to buy California-based
Yahoo! with an offer valued about $44.6 billion, but it was rejected.
- Former Google executive Marissa Mayer became chief of Yahoo! in July of 2012.
- Tumblr.com is an online platform for posting short snippets or images to blogs referred to as "tumblelogs."
- David Karp and lead developer Marco Arment launched Tumblr in 2007 and the company is based in New York City.
- Karp is chief executive of Tumblr. Arment left Tumblr two years ago for another start-up.
- Tumblr reportedly hosts more that 100 million blogs.
- Tumblr has been criticized for the amount of adult content shared at the website.
- Tumblr has received about $125 million in backing from Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital and other investors.
- Yahoo! announced on May 20, 2013 that it will buy Tumblr in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.
