Pornhub wants to buy Tumblr and restore site to former porn-filled glory

Less than two years after buying Tumblr as part of its Yahoo acquisition, Verizon is reportedly trying to sell the blogging platform. Pornhub has also announced that it wants to buy Tumblr and end the site's Verizon-imposed porn ban.

"Verizon Communications Inc. is seeking a buyer for blogging website Tumblr, according to people familiar with the matter, as it tries to steady a media business that has struggled to meet revenue targets," The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Pornhub quickly announced its interest after the news broke, although it isn't clear whether the two companies have talked. Verizon banned all adult content from Tumblr in December 2018, and Pornhub wants to restore the site to its former porn-filled glory.

"There are obvious synergies between the two brands and value Pornhub could derive from Tumblr," Pornhub VP Corey Price said in a statement to Ars. "We’re extremely interested in acquiring the platform and are very much looking forward to one day restoring it to its former glory with NSFW content."

We asked Pornhub if it has submitted an offer to buy Tumblr or at least spoken directly with Verizon about it, but we did not get an answer.

"Tumblr was a safe haven for those who wanted to explore and express their sexuality, adult entertainment aficionados included," Price's statement also said. "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."

Pornhub's interest in buying Tumblr was first reported by BuzzFeed yesterday.

Verizon declined to comment when contacted by Ars.

Shortly after Verizon announced the Tumblr porn ban, we reported that Tumblr's algorithm for enforcing the ban was "flagging non-adult content as adult content, and vice versa."

The WSJ report said Verizon's sale process for Tumblr "is ongoing and may not result in any transaction," and that "[i]t is unclear how much Verizon might get for Tumblr." The WSJ report didn't mention any potential buyers.

Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013, but it later wrote down about half of that value. Verizon bought Yahoo's operating business, including Tumblr, for $4.48 billion in June 2017.

Verizon hoped Yahoo and previously acquired AOL would help it create a huge online advertising business. It hasn't gone well. Verizon laid off 7 percent of employees in the Yahoo/AOL division in January this year, a month after telling investors that the media division had "lower-than-expected revenues and earnings" as it lost ground to online advertising industry leaders Google and Facebook. Verizon recorded a non-cash goodwill impairment of about $4.6 billion, wiping out nearly all of the Yahoo/AOL division's goodwill value.