Huffington PostYahoo’s board of directors has approved a deal to buy the popular blogging platform Tumblr, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the WSJ, it will pay $1.1 billion in cash for the site. The potential purchase was originally reported by the technology blog AllThingsD on Thursday,which also cited the same cash figure. AllThingsD also confirmed the board’s approval on Sunday.
Yahoo is holding a press conference in New York, Tumblr’s hometown, on Mondaywhere the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company is widely expected to announce the acquisition.
Forbes reported on Saturday that Tumblr’s board also approved the purchase.
The deal to buy the blogging website popular with young people, a demographic that Yahoo has had trouble reaching, will be the largest acquisition of CEO Marissa Mayer’s tenure. The former Google executive took over the reins of the struggling Internet company in 2012 and hasn’t been afraid to make splashy acquisitions. In March, Yahoo bought Summly, a news-summarization app created by a 17-year-old, for a rumored $30 million.
Meanwhile, Tumblr has been under increased pressure from investors to start generating a profit. The site, founded by CEO David Karp in 2007, brought in only $13 million in revenue in 2012. Karp’s goal was to make $100 million in revenue in 2013.
Yahoo will spend about a third of its total cash holdings to make the deal happen.