Your Jewish News – by Shifra Unger
There is a new young Jewish billionaire in New York after Yahoo announced its latest $1 billion purchase.
David Karp, who is the 26-year-old founder of blogging site Tumblr, just made a lot of money.
Yahoo’s board agreed over the weekend to buy the popular blogging platform, which has 100 million users and 90 million posts per day, for $1.1 billion in cash.
The agreement would make the native New Yorker a billionaire, despite publicly opposing, even last year, the sale of the company he founded inside his small Manhattan apartment of his mother in 2007.
On Sunday afternoon, it was revealed that Yahoo’s board approved the purchase of Tumblr, despite having revenues of just $13 million last year. Even that figure was only possible after $125 million in capital investments.
Karp grew up in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the son of a composer who wrote songs for movies and TV, and a mother who was a teacher.
He taught himself how to code HTML at age 11 and began to establish his own consulting business shortly thereafter. His parents allowed him to quit high school at age 15 and he completed the rest of his education through homeschooling.
At age 17, he moved to Japan, where he cemented his skill as a programmer and started throwing his ideas around to technology companies.
He moved back to New York and sold his services as a consultant. He founded Tumblr in 2007 at age 21, which quickly consumed all of his time.
He opened an office in Manhattan and has strongly resisted a move to Silicon Valley. He also tried to resist the money the world of technology has to offer.
He recently said that he wanted to remain independent, believing he could grow the company by increasing advertising revenues naturally.
Within a year, however, he was accepting funds from venture capital investors.
“Way to go David Karp. The world and the Jewish community needs more people like you, as you are smart and innovative. Keep up the good work, and start working on your next great project for the world to enjoy,” Harry Gilbert, 29, of New York City told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the Yahoo purchase of Tumblr.
He currently lives with his girlfriend in a modest apartment in the West Village of Manhattan. Rachel Eakley is a chef and has a postgraduate degree in psychology.
Just what we need.
Another filthy rich so-called ‘jew’.
Not many of THOSE around.