Showing posts with label Marissa Mayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marissa Mayer. Show all posts

Monday, May 20, 2013

Tumblr Monetization: Sell To Yahoo

Image representing David Karp as depicted in C...
Image by Matthew Buchanan / Flickr via CrunchBase
You have to be crazy about Tumblr to truly understand its appeal. It is half way there between Blogger/Wordpress and Twitter and, to its hard core users, more fulfilling than both. You can't amass a huge audience and not be able to monetize it. But this sale to Yahoo means monetization can wait some more.

Marissa Mayer failed to buy FourSquare as a Google executive, but she has managed to buy Tumblr as the Yahoo Chief. Both are companies that have helped put New York City on the tech map.

Last I met David Karp was during Social Media Week. This validation is well deserved. Now Karp and team get to nurture the local tech ecosystem some. I am assuming the Tumblr team will stay put in the city. I don't think it wants to wear "f----g Dropbox T-shirts!"

Karp, I have a clean energy idea that I need some seed money for. Are you in? :)

The billion Yahoo paid it will get back in the stock market reward to the Yahoo stock from the cool factor from Tumblr to the Yahoo brand. So basically this web property has been had for free. It is win win. This is also a strong signal to young and happening tech entrepreneurs that Yahoo is a brand that can be trusted with sexy acquisitions. That is worth at least another billion.

Fred Wilson must be very happy. You couldn't get near that guy without him gushing about David Karp at least once. Now you have concrete proof what it was all about.

David Karp showing up at Yahoo is like Arianna Huffington showing up at AOL, only I don't think Karp will outshine Mayer. She is a hotshot herself, very much so.

Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, vows not to screw it up
The deal is expected to increase Yahoo's audience by 50 percent. ..... Shares of Yahoo rose in early trading on Monday but quickly gave up those gains and were little changed at $26.54. Through Friday's close, they had risen 70 percent since Mayer became CEO. ..... David Karp, 26, who founded Tumblr in 2007 and will remain CEO. ...... Karp, a self-taught programmer who left high school in favor of home schooling ..... his take in the billion-dollar sale would top $200 million. .... "There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have the privilege of getting to invent things that billions of people use," he said.
Update: I think Karp will buy a plane.
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Friday, February 15, 2013

An External Battery As Big As The Phone

I have loved my Nexus 4, but my number one gripe has been the battery. The battery life is almost cosmetic. I am a power user. When I am out and about I am fiddling with my phone. It is my mobile office. I am deep into Ingress. And so I went ahead and plunked 40 bucks into getting me some extra juice. The thing is going to be bigger and heavier than my phone. I guess now on it will be like carrying two phones with me. But would bring a lot of peace of mind. And as for Ingress, see you at Level 8, because that is where I am headed. Now I also have enough juice to make the most of Social Media Week next week.





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Beyoncé's Real Life Is a Self-Centered Nightmare
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Marissa Mayer Doing Search Could Get Interesting

Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Search is, after all, the fundamental operation on the web. Steve Jobs left the PC to Bill Gates when he returned. But there is no post-Search like there was a post-PC. Search is here to stay. She does not have to become number one. All she has to do is become a strong number two and shine elsewhere. Mayer seems to be saying the Yahoo search results are already pretty good, but search results presentations could be vastly improved.

Marissa Mayer Aims Yahoo’s Guns at Google Search
Yahoo search was one of three parts of the company Mayer called out as in most urgent need of an overhaul, along with Yahoo Mail and the Yahoo.com homepage ..... by far the most lucrative business at Google, where Mayer once headed its search product ..... All of the innovations in search are going to happen at the user interface level moving forward and we need to invest in those features both on the desktop and on mobile .... Yahoo, presumably, can improve its search engine by simply wrapping Microsoft’s search infrastructure in an improved user interface. ..... Yahoo helps power searches on the Siri digital assistant included with Apple iPhones and iPads.
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Thursday, December 06, 2012

A Season For Forgiveness

Forgiveness lesson from flowers
Forgiveness lesson from flowers (Photo credit: juliejordanscott)
Looking For A Few Holiday Parties
Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
Tips From Gandhi
Happy Holidays

Temba Sherpa, I forgive you. Now get back your driving license.

Fred Wilson. I forgive you. Just because. And also because you have a kickass blog.

Binod Shah. I forgive you and your clinic in The Bronx.

Anjan Shrestha. I forgive you and your obsession with public restrooms.

Mike Bloomberg. You seem to be running for Mayor one more time. I forgive you.

Barack Obama. I forgive you. I mean, how about a second term, eh!

Marissa Mayer. I forgive you. I mean, after all those page hits you have given to this blog of mine.

Nabil Mouzannar. I forgive you. Here's to hoping you will find me a few good parties this month.

Pemba Sherpa. I forgive you. Even though your name rhymes with that of Temba Sherpa.

Benoy Thanjan. I forgive you and your misleading last name.

Julie Irving. I forgive you and I also forgive the NY Tech MeetUp. Oh, the long virtual lines.

Tsepak Dorjee. I forgive your singing voice.
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Monday, November 19, 2012

Off Season April Fool Joke On Yahoo Facebook Search Deal


This is not the first time respectable media got it wrong. Actually the media routinely gets it wrong. But flat out wrong is a little rare.

Yahoo Facebook Search Alliance Would Be Interesting
Yahoo and Facebook Not in Search Alliance Discussions
(Speaking of movies, I am sorry it took me so long to get to this, but I was seeing the final “Twilight” movie with some All Things Digital staffers. I can report that the sparkly vampires of the film are also not in search alliance talks with Facebook.)
I guess the implausible part is that it perhaps is truly hard for Yahoo to walk away from Microsoft on search, and if the idea is to compete with Google, Bing is not a bad ally, it is number two. Heck, Facebook teamed up with that very Bing.

Yahoo wanting to go back to fight the search wars would be like Steve Jobs wanting to go back and fight the PC wars.

"The PC wars are over. Microsoft won!" is what Steve Jobs wisely said when he took over Apple. Marissa Mayer is better off looking in the mobile direction. That is raw territory.
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