Report: Yahoo eager to close $1.1 billion cash deal for Tumblr by Sunday evening

Tumblr’s fate could be decided Sunday by Yahoo’s board of directors. AllThingsD reported late Friday that Yahoo is closing in on a $ 1.1 billion deal for the site, moving quickly to cement what would be the biggest deal of CEO Marissa Mayer’s tenure at the venerable but lackluster internet pioneer.

After reporting Thursday that Yahoo was considering a number of options for Tumblr, including partnerships or strategic investments, ATD reported Friday that Mayer had decided to go all in. Om reported Thursday that Yahoo was worried about counteroffers from Facebook, much how Facebook stole Instagram from Twitter after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s courtship of the photo-sharing site. Now the board plans to meet Sunday to consider giving final approval to the offer.

Tumblr’s backers will likely be pleased with a $ 1.1 billion price tag, especially if, as reported, it involves cash However, it’s far from certain that such an outlay would do anything to revive Yahoo’s fortunes. Mayer certainly has been trying to bring new blood into the company of late, snapping up a number of smaller mobile startups before focusing on Tumblr over the last month.

Yahoo has scheduled a press event for Monday evening in New York to discuss “something special,” but it wouldn’t hint at anything else. We’ll be there to cover the event, but in the meantime, here’s Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp’s appearance at our paidContent Live conference in April, discussing his company’s fortunes:

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