Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Yahoo to Announce $1.1B Tumblr Buy This Morning, as Shares Rise Ahead of Official News (That You Already Knew)

Yahoo will announce its $1.1 billion all-cash acquisition of the Tumblr blogging service this morning, said sources, likely just before the markets open.

That means: Very, very soon.

(Update: Looks like sooner than very soon — Yahoo officially said it promised not to screw up Tumblr at 5 am PT.)

But Wall Street likes the deal so far. Yahoo shares were up in pre-market trading this morning, close to 2 percent, to reach $27. The stock of the Silicon Valley Internet giant closed Friday at $26.52.

After the announcement of the news AllThingsD already told you about several times over the past few days, let the opinions begin over a range of the entirely unknowable right now, including:

Whether it is a good deal, or whether Yahoo has just bought themselves GeoCities 2.0; whether Tumblr’s tetchy young audience would bolt at the Yahoo ownership.

Whether Tumblr CEO David Karp — he of the sad-puppy-dog eyes and fantastically floppy hair — would wither or bloom under the leadership of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

And, of course, who got rich in the whole shebang.

Karp, for sure, garnering $250 million in cash.

So sit tight to get the final word and all the quotes praising the deal as the best thing since, well, Instagram got picked up by Facebook for a mere $1 billion. Apparently, $1.1 billion is the new $1 billion.

We will cover the news, of course, despite not being invited to Yahoo parties (and somehow we’ll survive).

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google