GMA’s George Stephanopoulos Grills Yahoo, Tumblr CEOs on Past Failures

Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer says Tumblr will remain independent and continue to cater to its community of users and creators      

With all the buzz surrounding Yahoo's purchase of blogging/social media site Tumblr this week for an reported $1.1 billion, Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos welcomed Yahoo and Tumblr CEOS Marissa Meyer and David Karp to the show Tuesday morning to discuss the acquisition. During the inteview, the anchor questioned them on Yahoo's past failures and asked how the two companies plan to join forces while also allowing Tumblr to maintain its identity.

Also readYahoo Board Signs Off on $1.1B Deal to Buy Tumblr

Discussing the deal, Stephanopoulos said, "Yahoo has famously in the past made a lot of money for new sites and then it hasn't worked out. What's your plan to avoid that kind of failure this time?"

Yahoo's Meyer, 37, responded by saying that Tumblr is all about its community of users and creators and that Yahoo plans to stay true to that mission. "I think one of the things that's so special about Tumblr is the community of users, this community of creators, and we want to make sure that they recognize that Tumblr is going to be independent, it's going to have the product roadmap and vision its always had. We're going to stay true to that user promise and we're setting up Tumblr to do exactly that," she explained. 

Also readYahoo Promises Not to Screw Up Tumblr

When Stephanopoulos grilled Karp on his past comments that "the whole idea of advertising turns {his} stomach," the 26-year-old CEO explained that it's about going after the right kind of advertisers. "More specifically, we've always said that the state of advertising on the web has just always been kind of uninspiring to us. But the truth is that there's a lot of great advertising out there in the world and the thesis for our business was that that was the type of advertising we could inspire and enable on Tumblr," Karp said, adding that Yahoo as the original digital media company is "the perfect partner to help us do that." 

And when Stephanopoulos replied, "And you're the original hipster CEO," Karp looked upset. "I don't appreciate that one," he said, prompting an apology from Stephanopoulos at the end of the segment. 

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