Yahoo! Press Conference to 'Share Something Special'
posted Saturday May 18, 2013 by Scott Ertz
This week, rumors began to surge about Yahoo's interest in purchasing Tumblr for as high as $1.1 billion. The acquisition would not be a surprise, as Yahoo has been on a buying spree that makes Facebook look conservative. The company has also been on a product kick, releasing apps for Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Mail, which has been very well reviewed.
So, accordingly, Yahoo has scheduled a press event for Monday, accomplishing two goals: attacking the news before rumors get too out of hand and holding the event before Microsoft reveals the Next Xbox on Tuesday. Beating Microsoft to the punch is important because Marissa Meyer knows she needs the press to talk about the announcement and all eyes will be on Microsoft Tuesday and beyond.
If Yahoo is announcing a purchase of Tumblr, what could it mean for the photo sharing and micro blogging service? The thing that Yahoo has always been good at is information aggregation and adding Tumblr into its folds can help them follow and predict trends. Combined with their recent purchase of Summly, a service that summarizes news stories, the Yahoo homepage may once again be the place for keeping up-to-date.
Yahoo is going to need more than just relevant data to regain lost market share, though. For example, their homepage is going to need a MAJOR refresh. The page is cluttered and difficult to find content versus advertising, something sites like MSN and USA Today have managed to fix.
All of the speculation in the world won't get us anywhere - only Monday will give us answers. Check out The UpStream Monday night for staff reactions to the announcement.