Verizon he said that it agreed to sell Tumblr to Automattic Inc., the owner company of WordPress.com.
The terms of the deal have not yet been revealed, except that Tumblr will be followed by about 200 Verizon executives at Automattic, according with the Wall Street Journal.
The ban on pornography imposed by Verizon will continue on Tumblr after the agreement is completed.
At the moment no one knows when the deal will be completed.
"Tumblr is one of the most well-known brands on the Web," he said communication Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg.
Είναι ένας βασικός χώρος για να μοιραστούμε νέες ιδέες, πολιτισμούς και εμπειρίες, βοηθώντας εκατομμύρια να δημιουργήσουν και να οικοδομήσουν κοινότητες γύρω από τα κοινά τους ενδιαφέροντα. …. Είμαστε ενθουσιασμένοι που το προσθέτουμε στο lineup μας, το οποίο συμπεριλαμβάνει ήδη τις εταιρείες WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Longreads and more.
Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan called Automattic the "perfect partner" for Tumblr, saying the buyer's "experience and track record will unlock new and exciting possibilities for Tumblr and its users of".
For the record, Yahoo bought Tumblr for 1,1 billion dollars 2013. The Verizon bought Yahoo, along with Tumblr, for $ 4,48 billion in June 2017.
However, Verizon's moves in the media business have not gone so well. In January, Verizon laid off 7% of its 11.385 Yahoo-AOL employees.
That came weeks after Verizon told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the media business had “lower-than-expected income and earnings” and “lower than expected benefits from the integration of Yahoo Inc.'s businesses. and AOL Inc.”.
In May of this year Verizon began looking for buyers for Tumblr. Pornhub said it wanted to buy Tumblr, but Verizon refused, as it had banned all pornography material on the site. Automattic will reportedly maintain this ban.
"Mr Mullenweg has stated that his company intends to maintain the existing policy banning adult content."
"He mentioned that he has been a Tumblr user for a long time and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com."
