WordPress owner Automattic buys blogging platform Tumblr for an undisclosed amount

Blogging platform Tumblr is, yet again, getting a new owner.After being bought over by Yahoo for $1.1 bn in 2014, and then coming under Verizon (after Verizon bought Yahoo), Tumblr is now being bought by WordPress.com owner Automattic for an undisclosed amount.Sources quoted by Axios, put the sale value below $10 mn, some even speculating it to be as low as $3 mn. Verizon seems to be selling it for a song and had been looking for buyers from earlier this year. According to the report, Pornhub was the only site which had shown interest in buying Tumblr till then.[caption id="attachment_5581501" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Tumblr[/caption]Considering Tumblr's stand against pornography, selling it off to Pornhub may not have been realised. This took place after the Verizon takeover, and after Tumblr was banned from the Apple App Store after it had emerged that the blogging platform was hosting child pornography. A blanket ban on all kinds of adult content was also seen by many from the community to be a bit harsh and resulted in many people leaving the platform. Automattic will carry on with the porn ban on Tumblr after the acquisition.

Tumblr hosts more than 450 million blogs and has over 200 employees, who will now be part of Automattic. According to Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, Tumblr will act as a complementary site to WordPress."Our teams are hard at work right now to make this transition smooth for everyone at Tumblr, and while we have many details to iron out, one thing we’re 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," said Mullenweg on his Tumblr blog.