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Verizon’s media division has struggled to make a profit in recent months, forcing the company to re-evaluate its situation
US Telco, Verizon, is believed to be looking to sell its 100 per cent stake in online blogging forum, Tumbler, after the recently acquired platform failed to make a profit in 2018.
Verizon acquired Tumblr for $4.5 billion in 2017 and immediately set about revamping the platform. In doing so, Verizon used artificial intelligence algorithms to filter out adult content, prompting howls of discontent from bloggers across the globe. As a result, Tumblr shed millions of subscribers, and traffic on the platform plummeted.
Now, according to sources at The Business Times, Verizon is looking to cultivate interest in Tumblr from prospective buyers.
Ironically, the biggest expression of interest in Tumblr has come from adult content streaming site, Pornhub, with the company’s chief executive, Corey Price, confirming to journalists from Buzzfeed that his company would be "extremely interested" in purchasing Tumblr.
"We’ve long been dismayed that such measures were taken to eradicate erotic communities on the platform, leaving many individuals without an asylum through which they could comfortably peruse adult content," Price told BuzzFeed News.
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