

Yahoo's Tumblr Buy Fails Four Tests Of A Successful Acquisition - sheri
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/20/yahoos-tumblr-buy-fails-4-tests-of-a-successful-acquisition/

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ajays
Sometimes I wonder if both sides of such analyses are written out beforehand
(for/against). Then, if the prevailing sentiment is for the event, they
publish the against version; and vice versa. Just to offer a 'counter opinion"
and garner pageviews. It reminds me of the obits that NYT has in its database
of all famous people alive today; when s/he croaks, they just pull up the
latest version and publish.

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kmfrk
Forbes are a huge source of clickbait. Writers are paid on a Gawker-like
basis, so we get contrarianism, #slatepitches, and coarse statements in
spades.

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rubyrescue
This is not a good analysis. Tumblr has a demographic access that yahoo
doesn't. Yahoo can generate ad revenues due to scale that Tumblr couldn't.
Karp adds a perspective that Yahoo needs.

It's unclear whether the acquisition will be a success, but if it is a success
the article's reasons will be irrelevant. If it isn't a success, those will
not be the reasons why it failed.

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LargeWu
So what you are saying is that Tumblr will allow Yahoo to lose money on its
target demographic faster than Yahoo could lose by itself?

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rubyrescue
I'm not sure that the demographic or the site is money losing over the long
term, like youtube.

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replicatorblog
This analysis is pretty useless. Where do these metrics come from? Yahoo long
ago ceded the search crown to Google and don't seem to be focused on
reclaiming it. The assertion that Yahoo can't integrate Tumblr is baseless
considering how new the exec team is.

YouTube wouldn't have scored much better on a report like this.

I don't think the deal will ultimately end up having a YouTube like effect for
Yahoo, but this is nothing more than a linkbait puff piece.

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jnuss
> Yahoo long ago ceded the search crown to Google and don't seem to be focused
> on reclaiming it.

This acquisition seems to support that idea.

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lenazegher
I've taken a quick look but I can't seem to find a good response: what kind of
"interactive campaigns" or "interactive advertising" does tumblr sell at the
moment?

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witek
"Tumblr finally started rolling out ad products in 2012, starting with
Highlighted Posts in February, which function like promoted posts on Twitter
and Facebook. In the following months, the company rolled out several
additional features, including a Pinned Posts, Radar and a premium analytics
tool for brands and marketers that costs $500 per month."

<http://mashable.com/2013/01/02/tumblr-revenue-13-million/>

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danielpal
Saving this so I can re-post it in 2 years to show how wrong this was.

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pesenti
These four points illustrate the fact that making a large acquisition to try
to transform/redeem yourself has not worked well in the past. Think AOL and
Time Warner or HP buying autonomy.

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kstop
"Tumblr’s industry of interactive advertising is less profitable than Yahoo’s
display advertising industry."

Banner ads are the future, you guys! Forbes said it first!

