Tumblr was failing to execute on the revenue side of their business, both before their acquisition, and then after.
At some point, Tumblr had to try and become a business and not just a website.
This article points blame at Marissa, but shouldn't it really be pointing at David, or a team of leaders?
If you hire a roofing company to fix your roof, and one of the workers screws up, it's still the responsibility of the owner who hired them.
This line stuck out to me as very true reflection of what the Valley sometimes looks like:
> Tumblr’s stumbles under Yahoo may go down as a cautionary tale, both for the perils of a large corporation buying a hot startup and for Silicon Valley’s belief that any social network reaching hundreds of millions of people will inevitably generate boatloads of cash one day.
There was talk of "We'll make it an advertising platform" but did anyone really ask the Tumblr team "How" ? (I'd love to hear info from any insiders on HN)
Makes me wonder how many times a day the execs at Facebook wonder how they can ever monetize expensive companies like Whatsapp.
Not everybody uses their Facebook account but they may be more prolific on Instagram. They might not like being constantly monitored by Facebook Messenger but even with WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption, Facebook is still provided with valuable metadata, and the more diverse data sources, the more metadata resembles regular, easily interpretable data.
It's like Microsoft buying LinkedIn: the market was clearly bearish on the company, but a tech Titan like Microsoft has a lot to gain by keeping its finger on the pulse of potential hires around the world - with a crucial head-start before headhunters can find star performers.