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Kelly Faircloth

By Kelly Faircloth 5/22 8:41am

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Nope.

Booting Up: No One Will Listen to the Inventor of the GIF About Pronunciation

Could our culture be any more saturated with hackathons? Now even the publishing business has latched onto them. [The Atlantic]

The creator of the GIF insists it’s pronounced “jif,” and no one will listen to him, not even the Oxford English Dictionary. Also, the dancing baby is still one of his favorites. [New York Times]

The immigration reform bill is headed to the Senate floor, which means FWD.us finally racked up a victory, of sorts, instead of just accumulating bad press for throwing the Alaskan caribou under the bus. [AllThingsD]

Microsoft just debuted a new Xbox, in case you were wondering what your spoiled nephew would be demanding for Christmas this year. [Wired]

By Kelly Faircloth 5/21 11:30am

I'll Tumbl For You

Couldn't miss it.

With Tumblr in the Bag, a Triumphant Marissa Mayer Takes a Victory Lap

Chief Yahoo Marissa Mayer looked pretty damn chipper as she took the stage in a small room overlooking Times Square, late yesterday afternoon.

Technically, the press had gathered for the announcement of a revamped Flickr. (It’s biggr! It’s spectaculr!) An entire lounge had been papered over with giant images pulled from the service, and in the square below a mob of T-shirt-wearing fans/paid actors were jumping up and down and hollering and waving Flickr signs in celebration.

But with David Karp slouched in the front row, it was clear this was about more than the addition of full-bleed photos to a decade-old service.  Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/21 8:36am

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Mr. Karp (via livestream.com)

Booting Up: Everybody’s Got an Opinion About the Tumblr-Yahoo Deal

Marco’s confident Tumblr made the right call: “This is clearly what David believes is best for his product. On such big decisions, he hasn’t been wrong yet. This time, though, I don’t have any doubts.” [Marco.org]

Dave Winer, on the other hand: “When you sell your company, no matter what promises were made, you sold it. It’s theirs now. They will do what they want to with it. Promises don’t matter.” [Scripting News]

Sounds like former Tumblr president John Maloney is just irked he’s being left out of the story. [Twitter]

Fab is reportedly raising a round somewhere in the ballpark of $250 million to $300 million, pushing the company’s valuation north of a billion dollars. [Wall Street Journal]

The Senate, meanwhile, says Apple dodged, oh, about $44 billion in taxes. [Politico]

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

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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

Hipstblr (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