Automattic Inc., owner of WordPress.com, has acquired Tumblr for what is reported to be very low sum.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Tumblr was acquired for an “undisclosed sum,” however, it was soon revealed the sum was “well below” $10 million.
Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, broke the news about the acquisition price. He tweeted an update after publishing the story, saying the sum is actually below $3 million.
3/ Story updated: Price less than $3 million.
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) August 12, 2019
To put this in perspective, Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013. Yahoo later wrote down Tumblr’s value by $230 million in 2016 after it failed to generate significant revenue.
In 2017, Verizon gained ownership of Tumblr through its acquisition of Yahoo. Now, Verizon is reportedly selling Tumblr for a fraction of what it was valued at 5 years ago.
Despite what is considered to be a low sum, the acquisition of Tumblr is largest ever for Automattic in terms of price and head count.
As part of the acquisition, Automattic will take on Tumblr’s 200 staffers, so no one will be losing their job.
Another thing that will stay in place is Tumblr’s controversial porn ban. Matt Mullenweg, chief executive of Automattic, tells WSJ: “We’re not going to change any of that.”
Going forward, Mullenweg says that executives will look for ways to share services and functionality between WordPress.com and Tumblr.
In the meantime it sounds as though there will be no immediate changes to either service.
