Ever since the rumours about the Yahoo-Tumblr acquisition running over the weekend (which it turns out weren't just rumours), I've wanted to communicate my opinion on the matter. Until this morning, that opinion would've included gems like these:
- "Hahahaha! ROFL! WTF! OMFG! LOL!"
- "Tumblr has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, has very little revenue. So why would Yahoo be paying that kind of earnings multiple for a business? Seems desperate..."
- "This is another bad example for startups. Acquisitions like these send out the wrong signal that it is okay to raise millions in funding, but never really worry about revenue."
And so forth. You get the point...
But I never published any of that.
See, I realized that ultimately my opinion didn't really matter, but more importantly, that this deal was down (mostly) to two individual entrepreneurs (along with their respective boards of course): Marissa Meyer & David Karp. And I needed to - and wanted to - respect that fact.
It's easy to be an armchair critic. We all know that.
But what many of us don't know is how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. Much less, an entrepreneur having to sell your company.
I can only imagine the kind of emotional blood, sweat & tears that went into this deal in the last couple of days. Getting this done (both from Yahoo & Tumblr's perspective) takes massive balls.
I admire that.
And one day, I would love to have the opportunity of testing my own mettle in a similar situation. As an entrepreneur, that's the kind of stuff that I live for.
So regardless of whether I think this is a good deal, whether Yahoo overpaid, or whether Tumblr can generate any kind of appropriate ROI, I have major respect for the entrepreneurs involved in this deal. To each his own.