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Then was acquired by , and Tumblr came along with it—changing ownership once again.

Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, on the purchase: “When the possibility to join forces became concrete, it felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have two beloved platforms work alongside each other to build a better, more open, more inclusive – and, frankly, more fun web. I knew we had to do it.”

He added that he is “absolutely committed to is to preserve the passion and sense of community that so many people around the world – and all over the web – have come to associate with Tumblr.”

We’ll get more into how past transfers impacted �ճܳ�������’s trajectory later to help give some context for this new buy, but first let’s look into the social media platform’s funding history.

Prior to being passed around, Tumblr raised $125.3 million dollars in venture capital. In 2007, the year it was founded, it raised $750,000 by and . The two subsequent rounds were also led by both the aforementioned investors: a $4.5 million Series B and a $5 million Series C.

Sequoia Capital bet on the company in 2010 and led a $30 million Series D, with participation from and . At the time of this financing event, TechCrunch reported that Tumblr only had 12 employees. As per yesterday’s deal, Automattic will acquire about 200 employees from Tumblr.

And about two years before Verizon bought Tumblr, the platform raised $85 million led by Insight Partners, .

So what changed?

It’s A Hot Potato

In 2010, that he wanted Tumblr to be the “best place in the world for creative communities,” calling out Facebook for being “arguably hostile” toward these groups. Karp was an outspoken critic of censorship and champion of net neutrality in the media community. That changed as the platform was passed between many owners and executives left.

In 2017, , then of The Daily Beast, how �ճܳ�������’s changing ownership impacted Karp’s once strenuous handle over the platform’s freedom to post. Below, Lorenz details Verizon’s efforts to “dismantle the open web.”

The company spends millions in lobbying efforts and, in 2011, it sued the FCC to overturn net-neutrality rules. In April of this year, its current general counsel, Kathy Grillo, wrote an open letter voicing Verizon’s support in repealing the protections.

Verizon owning Tumblr, thus, wasn’t the best look for a platform that wanted to be the “Best place in the world for creative communities.”

Those woes intensified into action when Tumblr banned explicit content on December 17, 2018. The move was deemed controversial by some in the blogger community, as creative users had their content hidden ().

Tumblr felt the reaction in traffic. , the company had 376 million unique visitors globally. In January 2019, Tumblr had 437 million users. The chart below, from Statista, shows the global online and mobile users of the platform over time.

It even inspired some users, like , who prefers to go by her first name, to move to other platforms that felt less censored.

June, who has used Tumblr since 2011 and draws lovers, cuddling or kissing, felt impacted by the porn ban. Her drawings and sketches have been deleted, although Tumblr claims it does not delete work, just hides it from the public.

“I know the algorithm was used at first to ban the porn bots on the website but the thing is that it sucked. Really bad at first. They’ve corrected a little the algorithm cause it used to ban EVERYTHING on the platform (including totally safe drawings or pictures),” she told Crunchbase News.

She explained how Tumblr has since gotten “deserted.”

“My dashboard used to be liveful and I have to scroll on it every day to see all the news, but now I could go once a week on it and still be up to date.”

It’s inspired her to move to Twitter, .

Currently, June has . Unless Automattic changes the ban, she doesn’t think her opinion of Tumblr will change.

Illustration: .

The entirety of �ճܳ�������’s New York City headquarters staff will move into �۲���Ǵ�’s Midtown Manhattan office, Crunchbase News has learned.

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According to several Tumblr employees, who confirmed the news on condition of anonymity, their company’s original NYC office in the Flatiron district will cease to exist at the end of this month. Instead, Tumblr employees will be relocated to �۲���Ǵ�’s current New York Headquarters.

“We are looking forward to �ճܳ�������’s move to Oath’s NYC headquarters,” Simon Khalaf, Oath’s head of media and products, told Crunchbase News. “It’s a natural progression for us to bring the Oath family of brands together as we continue to foster collaboration and build brands people love.”

Blogging platform Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo back in May 2013 for $1.1 billion—Marissa Mayer’s’ biggest buy—as a means to revamp their image into a brand geared toward a younger demographic. Given �ճܳ�������’s early success for its blogging service, the acquisition was meant to help both parties achieve long term financial and branding success.

Since its inception, Tumblr has become known as a popular destination for independent creators and internet subcultures.

To top it off, Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp stepped down in November, signaling an end of an indie era. The move also comes on the heels of Complex Media — owned by Verizon, which also owns Yahoo under the Oath umbrella — moving into �۲���Ǵ�’s Times Square building

Tumblr raised rounds from its launch in 2007 until 2012, raising a total of about $125 million before being acquired by Yahoo five years ago. Although the platform maintained an independent operation, the shadow of pressure from the Yahoo ownership created a

While it’s unclear how �ճܳ�������’s new office integration will operate, it’s safe to assume its culture will further be ingrained into �۲���Ǵ�’s corporate one. This could likely mean a further detriment of what made Tumblr worth acquiring in 2013.