'Buying Netflix at $4 billion would've been better instead of...': Former ...

Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, has admitted that the company should have purchased Netflix or Hulu instead of Tumblr during her tenure. In a recent interview with Tech Brew, Mayer revealed that Yahoo was considering the possibility of acquiring Hulu or Netflix while also contemplating the purchase of Tumblr.

According to Mayer, Netflix was priced at $4 billion, while Hulu was valued at $1.3 billion during that time. In hindsight, Mayer believes that either of these acquisitions would have been more successful than Tumblr, which Yahoo bought for $1.1 billion in 2013.

“We looked at a transformative acquisition, and we bought Tumblr. At the same time, we were also considering whether it was possible to buy Hulu or, ironically, Netflix. And I think Netflix was $4 billion and Hulu was at $1.3 billion at the time. And either of those, with hindsight being 20/20, would have been a better acquisition,” Mayer said in an interview with Tech Brew.

Although Yahoo attempted to integrate Tumblr into its media strategy, it struggled to make the platform profitable and ended up writing down its value by $230 million in 2016. Yahoo's attempts to monetise Tumblr led to the implementation of unrealistic sales targets and the introduction of ads on the platform.

Things only got worse for Tumblr after Verizon acquired Yahoo. The platform was removed from the App Store in 2018 due to the prevalence of child pornography, and in response, Tumblr banned all sexual content a month later. This move caused a significant decline in traffic, and users began to leave the platform.

Verizon eventually sold Tumblr to the owner of WordPress for less than $3 million in 2019. Although Yahoo missed the opportunity to acquire Netflix or Hulu, the company did briefly venture into original streaming video content with Yahoo Screen. During this time, Yahoo produced shows such as Other Space and Sin City Saints, and even funded the sixth season of Community.

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