TechCrunch: Verizon is selling Tumblr to WordPress parent, Automattic. “Six years after Yahoo purchased Tumblr for north of $1 billion, its parent corporation is selling the once dominant blogging platform. WordPress owner Automattic Inc. has agreed to take the service off of Verizon’s hands. Terms of the deal are undisclosed, but the number is ‘nominal,’ compared to its original asking price, per an article in The Wall Street Journal.” Axios is reporting that it was less than $20 million. From $1 billion purchase by Yahoo to reportedly less than $20 million. And just to make this as fun as possible, I’ll note that the sale price of Tumblr was apparently less than Marissa Mayer’s severance pay of $23 million.
Automattic
Neowin: Google partners with Automattic to support local news with Newspack
Neowin: Google partners with Automattic to support local news with Newspack. “Google has announced a new initiative to help local news publications be more sustainable for their contributors. The Mountain View giant has partnered with Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, to launch Newspack, a set of tools to make online content management and presentation easier. Google has invested $1.2 million in its efforts to kickstart the platform, but funding has also come from a few other organizations, adding another million dollars to that amount.”
TechCrunch: WordPress.com parent company acquires Atavist
TechCrunch: WordPress.com parent company acquires Atavist . “Atavist has been working on a content management system for independent bloggers and writers. With an Atavist website, you can easily write and publish stories with a ton of media. You might think that this isn’t particularly groundbreaking as anyone can create a website on WordPress.com or Squarespace and do the same thing. But the company also lets you create a paywall and build a subscription base.”
Mashable: Tech keeps hitting the FCC over net neutrality
Mashable: Tech keeps hitting the FCC over net neutrality. “The internet isn’t letting net neutrality disappear without a fight. Several big tech companies, including Etsy, Expa, Kickstarter, Automattic, Foursquare, and Shutterstock, filed a petition on Monday with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to end net neutrality.”
