Yahoo’s board agrees to $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr

As expected, Yahoo’s board has agreed to purchase hosting site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The deal makes Tumblr a major part of a new plan by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to make Yahoo hip and relevant to those who are, well, hip and relevant. Despite rumors that Microsoft and Facebook were interested in Tumblr, there were no competing bids for the board to consider although the approval by Yahoo’s board doesn’t preclude another bid from coming.

Yahoo has scheduled a press event for Monday at which time it is expected to announce the deal as well as an update to social picture sharing site Flickr. We will be updating this story throughout the day as new information comes in.

Marissa Mayer is leaving Google for its major competitor Yahoo!

Marissa Mayer is leaving Google for its major competitor.

One of the top players at the top search engine on the planet, Mayer was named chief executive of Yahoo today, instantly bumping her way up on the corporate America food chain and making her possibly the most prominent woman in Silicon Valley.

She had been listed as employee number-20 at Google.

An engineer by trade, Mayer was considered responsible for many of Google’s best-known features, from its simple homepage design to Gmail to Google News and Images.

Her appointment as the President of Yahoo is considered a significant get for a company trying to compete with Google and Facebook. She begins her new gig tomorrow.

Referring to Yahoo as “one of the best brands on the Internet,” Mayer showed appreciation for her time at Google but told The New York Times in an interview: “It was a reasonably easy decision.”