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Kelly Faircloth

By Kelly Faircloth 5/20 4:15pm

I'll Tumbl For You

Probably not the key to a new castle on the moon. (via)

Let’s Not Pop All the Bottles at Once: This Tumblr Deal Isn’t a Total Cinderella Story

In Pride and Prejudice, before achieving her happy ending with Mr. Darcy, Lizzie Bennett receives a marriage proposal from Mr. Collins, a toadying little man who offers a lifetime of a) stability and b) teeth-grinding annoyance. She turns him down, and her friend Charlotte promptly snaps him up. A 27-year-old woman of limited means in 18th century England, she’s realistic about her options and grabs her best bet with both hands.

Let’s not kid ourselves that Yahoo! is anything other than a Mr. Collins. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/20 8:16am

I'll Tumbl For You

tumblr_m4chebQCUX1qggwnvo1_500

It’s Done: Yahoo Just Announced the Acquisition of Tumblr

The official announcement just hit the newswires. Yahoo has acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion, “substantially all of which is payable in cash.” Because really, who wants to bet on the stability of Yahoo’s stock price?

In the press release, CEO Marissa Mayer tries desperately to explain the acquisition in any way she can besides admitting Yahoo wants to drink the blood of the young: ”Yahoo is the Internet’s original media network. Tumblr is the Internet’s fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands – established and emerging.” Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/20 8:06am

Linkages

She's laughing at you, fandom. LAUGHING AT YOU.

Booting Up: Tumblr Users Are Freaking Out So Hard Right Now, You Guys

“The inevitable next step is for Kim Kardashian to sit on the board of a tech start-up, host a global-poverty-awareness event and write a book on behavioral neuroscience.” [New York Times]

The tax man’s hanging round Apple’s door, and now Tim Cook is due to appear before Congress on the matter. [Telegraph]

For her science fair project, this teenaged girl invented a supercapacitor that could maybe, with further development, charge your electronics lightening fast. Everyone’s now feeling pretty bad about their baking soda volcano, huh? [Jezebel]

Matt Mullenweg says that talk of Yahoo buying Tumblr sent WordPress imports from Tumblr skyrocketing, from 400-600 posts per hour to 72,000 on Sunday. Of course, that could’ve just been one really dedicated porn reblogger. [AllThingsD]

Tumblr users are having a collective meltdown to rival The China Syndrome (only onetime Yahoo users are old enough to get that joke). [Buzzfeed]

By Kelly Faircloth 5/19 3:48pm

I'll Tumbl For You

Tumblr's Mr. Karp (Photo: wikipedia.org)

Report: Yahoo/Tumblr Deal Is a Go, For $1.1 Billion in Cash

Here we go, folks! The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo’s board has approved a rumored deal to purchase Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash money. Forbes reports Tumblr’s board, which includes reps from Union Square Ventures, Sequoia Capital and others, has already voted to approve the deal. If it’s true that the company has only a few months of runway left, they’d be fools not to.

It’s a happy enough ending for Tumblr’s investors (and employees lucky enough to have a significant amount of stock), sure, but it’s not exactly the stirring success story the New York startup scene might’ve wished for. (A YouTube’s nice, but a Google would be better.) Yahoo’s got a long history of snapping up startups and frittering away their potential, and $1.1 billion must dash a few hopes for Silicon Alley’s flagship. The company only made $13 million in revenue last year, but as of March it had 117 million unique users worldwide. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/17 1:30pm

Parker Parade

Okay, Elrond. (Photo: TMZ)

Whoops! Sean Parker Maybe Didn’t Get the Permits to Build That Lavish Wedding Set

It’s not a party ’til someone calls the cops! Or, in Sean Parker’s case, the local county planning department.

The Carmel Pine Cone (nice) reports that Mr. Parker didn’t secure the proper permits for the millions’ worth of building he’s doing at his wooded wedding venue in Big Sur. And so the Monterey County planning department (and also maybe the California Coastal Commission, yikes) has started poking around whether they’ve violated local construction restrictions: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/17 11:07am

Planet GOOG

Only models look this good in Glass. (Photo: Google)

Congress Is a Little Worried About the Privacy Implications of Google Glass

The world is rapidly sorting itself into two camps: Glassholes, and people who want you to take that damn thing off your face. The latest concerned parties, according to the Wall Street Journal: the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus.

Imagine that: A bunch of politicians worried about a world where everyone wears a camera on his face, ready to snap a picture of any shenanigans by public figures.

Yesterday the group wrote an open letter to Larry Page, expressing their concerns: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/17 9:45am

I'll Tumbl For You

He's staring at a large pile of money, shimmering in the distance like an oasis.

Yahoo’s Futile Search for the Fountain of Youth Continues, With Talk of Acquiring Tumblr

Looks like there might be a suitor waiting in the wings for Tumblr, that scatterbrained belle of the ball. He’s a real gray-hair, though. According to AllThingsD, the blogging site is talking to Yahoo about the possibilities for an alliance, an investment or even a lock-stock-and-barrel purchase. Ad Week says the highly hypothetical price tag could be as much as a billion dollars.

At this point, it might be easier to keep a list of the startups Yahoo hasn’t considered acquiring. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/16 3:30pm

Fresh Capital

They'll also STING YOUR FACE OFF. (Photo: Flickr, Garrett Rooney)

You Jelly? Jack Dorsey, Al Gore, Bono Invest in Biz Stone’s Stealth Startup

Biz Stone’s mysterious new startup, Jelly, has just closed a Series A.

An announcement on the company’s Tumblr didn’t disclose the total amount raise, but revealed that Spark Capital raised the round, with SV Angel piling on, as well.

Also participating are several individual investors who, we can only assume, were rounded up in the parking lot of last year’s TED conference: Jack Dorsey, Bono, Al Gore, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Where Good Ideas Come From author Steven Johnson, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman, House (?!) director Greg Yaitanes, and Afghan entrepreneur Roya Mahboob. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/16 7:35am

Linkages

(Photo: NASA)

Booting Up: Microsoft and Google Are In a Tiff Over YouTube

Microsoft recently updated its YouTube app for Windows Phones, but Google isn’t too pleased with the results–going so far as to send a cease and desist. That’s because Microsoft built in features allowing users to block ads. [The Verge]

A spokesman said they’d be “more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs.” [The Verge]

“Reading is an activity more likely to be on screen than on the printed page.” So there’s that. [BBC]

Car-sharing service Relay Rides has gotten the ax (locally at least) from the New York State’s Department of Financial Services, who said their insurance is “illegal and inadequate.” [PandoDaily]

Looks like, after technical problems, NASA’s other-Earth-seeking Kepler Telescope is powering down. [Popular Science]

“Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99.” That’s the kind of email that, even if you are Steve Jobs, lands you in hot water with antitrust enforcers. [AllThingsD]