Tumblr founder David Karp to step down
David Karp, the founder and CEO of Tumblr, is leaving after more than a decade leading the blogging service.
Tumblr, founded in 2007 as social media was taking off, was acquired by Verizon Communications (VZ) when the wireless giant bought Yahoo in 2016 for $4.8 billion. Yahoo had bought Tumblr in 2013 for $1.1 billion, a price that drew criticism at the time given the pioneering internet portal's financial struggles.
"I beg you to understand that my decision comes after months of reflection on my personal ambitions, and at no cost to my hopefulness for Tumblr's future or the impact I know it can have," he said in a post on his Tumblr page. "The internet is at a crossroads of which this team can play a fundamental role in shaping."
Tumblr Chief Operating Officer Jeff D'Onofrio will lead the service when Karp leaves later this year, according to Reuters.
Tumblr grew quickly in its early years, providing a less mainstream platform for young people to share their thoughts and to post content. But Yahoo struggled to turn that traffic into revenue.
Verizon earlier this year combined Yahoo, AOL and a number of other internet brands and redubbed the group "Oath." The unit has a global audience of roughly 1 billion people and generated revenue of $2 billion in the company's most recent quarter, according to a regulatory filing.