NEW YORK: Yahoo! has begun talks with the popular blogging platform Tumblr about an acquisition or strategic alliance, the technology website AllThingsD reported.
The Dow Jones-owned website said Yahoo! is eyeing the move to attract more users from the key 18 to 24-year-old age bracket, and that the Internet pioneer sees Tumblr as one of the “coolest” sites. The report said talks between the two firms were “serious” but that nothing had been finalized.
Yahoo! has been looking at a range of acquisitions since Marissa Mayer took over as chief executive last year and vowed to revive the company, which has faded in the face of competition from Google.
AllThingsD said Tumblr could fetch as much as $ 1 billion, and that its current valuation based on investments is believed to be in the range of $ 800 million. The report said Tumblr is interested in “strategic” investments, which could mean some kind of alliance.
Yahoo! recently failed in a bid to take over the online video site Dailymotion after the French government, which owns a stake, quashed the deal.
The California firm is now reported to be interested in another video website, Hulu.
Yahoo! has also begun spicing up its online news pages with real-time comments fired off at Twitter.
“Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed,” Marissa Mayer, Yahoo! chief executive, said in a blog post.
“Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information.”
Yahoo! will display “relevant and personalized” Twitter messages in news feeds, according to Mayer.
California-based Yahoo! has been re-inventing itself as a premier online content venue since the pioneering Internet search firm found itself withering in Google’s shadow.
Deal talks: Tumblr may fetch $ 1 bn
