Yahoo will confirm that it has purchased Tumblr for an expected $1.1 billion later today, according to reports.
AllThingsD is reporting that the Yahoo board has voted unanimously in favour of purchasing the popular blogging service. The expected $1.1 billion payment will be in pure cash.
According to "sources close to the board," Yahoo will probably announce the massive deal on Monday morning - so later this evening on UK time. The deal was rumoured to be in the works prior to the weekend.
Yahoo's purchase of Tumblr aligns with the internet company's well-documented desire to get cool, and to attract a younger demographic. It's also the biggest move yet from Marissa Mayer as she approaches her first year as Yahoo President and CEO.
The report claims that there were no rival bids for Tumblr, which was founded by David Karp in 2007 as a microblogging platform. The service currently supports 107.8 million blogs and 117 monthly unique visitors.
It's claimed that Karp will remain at Yahoo for at least four years, and will retain a good deal of control over his baby. The Tumblr brand will remain.
As well as being young and cool, Tumblr represents a way into social user generated content creation for Yahoo. It will also bolster Yahoo's presence on mobile, with is reportedly another area of concern for the resurgent internet company.
For its part, it's believed that Yahoo will look to implement its considerable advertising infrastructure into the young blogging service. In short, Yahoo will help Tumblr to make money which, for all its recent success, the microblogging service has failed to do to any great extent so far.
Next, find out why Apple should be scared of Google.
