Yahoo to acquire Tumblr for $1.1bn

Yahoo's board today announced a deal to acquire New York-based blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1billion, with a view to bringing in a younger user base to compete with Facebook and Google's G+.Speculation around the web about the deal said Facebook would have been a more natural fit for Tumbler, to bring in a younger generation of users who are said to be abandoning the web's biggest social site.And already, local reaction to the news has been mixed.Matthew Drury, head of digital at MEC Interaction Singapore, argues that Yahoo needs to position the deal carefully."I’m not sure the current Tumblr base will take kindly to being ‘turned purple’," he said."Tumblr is a great platform but it’s not exactly mobile first. For this reason I wouldn’t base the future of the business behind the acquisition because you will always have a growing percentage that you will find difficult to monetize."Tumblr now hosts 108.5 million blogs with a total of 50.9 billion posts and Yahoo has reportedly promised to allow the site to operate as an independent business.A demographics study of social media users by Pew Internet shows that Tumblr skews heavily into the 18 to 29 year old demographic.For Tumblr, Yahoo could bring advertising on the site that has been missing since its lunch in 2007.Acquiring Tubmlr will be Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer's largest deal since taking the role last July. Smaller acquisitions have included food and entertainment recommendation app Jybe and news summary app Summly.Keith Timimi, chairman of VML, added the Summly deal was an excellent idea, and if Tumblr also goes through this will be a really strong addition.Jeff Cheong, vice president of Tribal DDB Asia, added advertising on the site would have to be managed in a smart way."The excitement of this acquisition is to see how Yahoo integrates Tumblr into its full platform of content. If Yahoo plays it well and keeps Tumblr stay away from ads, pre-rolls, related pages and sponsored pages, they may pull off a successful feat.”Additional reporting from Rezwana Manjur.