Verizon Sells Tumblr to WordPress Owner
- Mehedi Hassan
- Aug 12, 2019
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Tumblr is getting a new owner. Once again.
The service was originally owned by Yahoo, and it was later purchased by Verizon for a whopping $1 billion in 2017. And now, Verizon is also done with Tumblr, meaning it’s getting a new owner: Automattic.
Automattic, for those unfamiliar, is the owner of WordPress.com. Automattic also plays a major role in maintaining WordPress.org, which is the free, open-source version of WordPress that’s widely used by many websites on the internet to this date.
Wall Street Journal reports that Automattic has purchased Tumblr off Verizon for an undisclosed sum. 200 Tumblr staffers will be joining Automattic as part of the acquisition. Verizon actually started seeking a buyer for the service earlier this year, and Automattic was one of the interested customers, along with…PornHub.
Here’s the thing: Tumblr has a ton of safe-for-work blogs, but a lot of the userbase for the service was made of users that solely used the service for enjoying adult content. When Verizon purchased Tumblr in 2017, the company introduced an adult content ban on Tumblr, leading to a huge backlash from users.
And although PornHub showing interest in Tumblr earlier this year led to some new hope for Tumblr users, the latest acquisition of Tumblr will break all those dreams. Automattic said the company plans to continue the adult content policy.
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skane2600
<p>I remember when the technology industry was about expanding potential. Now it's just ho-hum technology applied to an advertising strategy.</p>