Yahoo confirms Tumblr buy, 'promises not to screw it up'

Yahoo has officially confirmed it's buying Tumblr in a massively multi-million dollar deal -- and Yahoo "promises not to screw it up". I'm not paraphrasing: that's what the official announcement actually says.

Yahoo is forking over $1.1bn for the popular microblogging platform, in cash no less. But the move has riled Tumblr's vocal and loyal community, hence Yahoo's hurried assurances that it won't ruin things.

Tell that to users of Flickr, Delicious and Geocities, other services acquired in the past by Yahoo.

"On many levels," says Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer, "Tumblr and Yahoo couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary." Thanks, that clears things up.

Tumblr will continue independently as a separate business, Mayer promises, with 26-year-old founder David Karp staying on as boss. The microblogging service will benefit from what Yahoo calls its personalisation technology and search infrastructure to help users find people and posts they might be interested in.

In return, Yahoo gets access to a whole heap of new users to advertise to: Tumblr attracts 300 million monthly visitors, posting a whopping 900 posts per second.

Are you an avid Tumblr user? Will Tumblr avoid the same fate as Flickr, Delicious and Geocities? Tell me your thoughts inn the comments or tumble down to our Facebook page.