"Verizon Communications Inc. is seeking a buyer for blogging website Tumblr, according to people familiar with the matter, as it tries to steady a media business that has struggled to meet revenue targets," The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Pornhub quickly announced its interest after the news broke, although it isn't clear whether the two companies have talked. Verizon banned all adult content from Tumblr in December 2018, and Pornhub wants to restore the site to its former porn-filled glory.
The WSJ report said Verizon's sale process for Tumblr "is ongoing and may not result in any transaction," and that "[i]t is unclear how much Verizon might get for Tumblr." The WSJ report didn't mention any potential buyers.
Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013, but it later wrote down about half of that value. Verizon bought Yahoo's operating business, including Tumblr, for $4.48 billion in June 2017.
Verizon hoped Yahoo and previously acquired AOL would help it create a huge online advertising business. It hasn't gone well. Verizon laid off 7 percent of employees in the Yahoo/AOL division in January this year, a month after telling investors that the media division had "lower-than-expected revenues and earnings" as it lost ground to online advertising industry leaders Google and Facebook. Verizon recorded a non-cash goodwill impairment of about $4.6 billion, wiping out nearly all of the Yahoo/AOL division's goodwill value.
I knew Verizon was struggling with AOL/Yahoo. I didn't know it was that bad.
Submitted May 03, 2019 at 07:48PM by COMPUTER1313 http://bit.ly/2WoTGEf
