Funny how time moves faster than a cat meme on Tumblr. David Karp, the quirky genius behind your favorite blogging platform, hasn’t owned Tumblr for quite some time now. Let’s dive deep into this delightful timeline, shall we?
Back on June 20, 2013, David Karp put on his best celebratory hat when he officially sold Tumblr to Yahoo! For a cool $1.1 billion, who could resist? Karp retained his role as the CEO, which meant he was still the captain of this quirky ship riding the choppy waters of social media. But let’s get real; Tumblr was like the fun-kid-at-school who never did their homework. Sure, it had all the potential, but when it came to advertising sales—yeah, not so much.
Fast forward to 2016, when Yahoo was like that friend who keeps borrowing money and never pays you back. They wrote down a staggering $712 million of Tumblr’s value. Ouch! If they were keeping track of fiscal wellness, they forgot to include their hipster blog platform in their budget spreadsheet. Who would’ve thought that a site thriving on emo poetry and ‘reblogging’ cat gifs wouldn’t be a goldmine?
Then, in June 2017, the plot thickened. Verizon Communications sauntered in, cash in hand, swooping up Yahoo like a superhero who just bought out the neighborhood coffee shop. They tucked Tumblr under the umbrella of their Oath subsidiary—a name that sounds more like a secret society than a business division. Karp did exit stage left, and the ownership fairy sprinkled some of that corporate magic dust, whisking Tumblr away from its creator.
So, to finally clear it up: no, David Karp does not own Tumblr anymore. He handed over the keys and bid adieu to the whimsical world of gifs, memes, and fandoms. Today, Tumblr is just another cog in the Verizon machine, shaking its fist at “the man” while trying to maintain its identity. And let’s face it, the struggle of being cool in a capitalist world is real. Karp may not own it, but he’ll always have the fond memories of reigniting the blogging spirit.
