In a very surprising turn of events, Verizon has sold Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the owners of blogging platform WordPress.
Automattic bought Tumblr for a sum that hasn’t been disclosed yet. The sale also includes taking on 200 staffers from Tumblr, with the purchase.
Tumblr was previously bought by Yahoo for more than $1 billion in 2013 and was one of the fastest growing start-ups at the time.
The downfall of Tumblr is linked to the decision by Verizon to strip the site of adult content, including many selling feet photos for money. Many saw this downfall coming as million threatened to quit Tumblr if they went ahead with the decision to strip it of adult content.
For those happy with this sale thinking it might bring back the adult content, unfortunately it’s not going to happen.
The founder of WordPress, Mr. Mullenweg has insisted they will maintain the adult content ban. But some think this decision won’t hold, if they really want to turn it around to what it was before the ban.
Even though the sum wasn’t disclosed, it’s reported to be less than $3 million. That’s a huge loss from the over $1 billion Yahoo bought it for just some years ago.
The fact that Tumblr still hosts a staggering 450 million blogs means it’s a big deal for WordPress and millions of bloggers all over the world.
Whether you are already a blogger or planning to start, this news is a good news for all bloggers. It shows there’s a big future in blogging.
For Automattic, the owners of WordPress, to buy Tumblr, they obviously have big plans to revive it somewhat. The revival, if it happens, will do a lot to their blogging dominance and of course also help bloggers on both platforms.
If you are a blogger, this should give you hopes for the future of blogging. With what Automattic has already done with WordPress, it’s safe to say Tumblr will pick up from what it was before this sale.
