Yesterday, Yahoo and Tumblr announced that they’re getting hitched. Why? Yahoo needs content that uses design principles from the last decade, and Tumblr needs some grown-ups to supervise the place and figure out how to actually earn money. Is everyone involved in this transaction making a huge mistake?

The problem is that Yahoo has a history of buying things and making them terrible. Do you remember Geocities? Upcoming? Delicious? Those are three notable Yahoo acquisitions of the last decade that the company destroyed, then shut down. (Delicious managed to survive somehow.)

Keeping this in mind, Yahoo has specifically promised not to “screw up” Tumblr. But they’re also going to move the already inevitable monetization along faster, because that’s the entire point of acquiring another company with a customer base of young, fresh eyeballs.

Will they strip out everything that people like about Tumblr? That is: the minimalist layouts, the porn, the animated GIFs from television programs, the dozen layers of confusing nested reblogs, the porn, the vibrant social justice community, and the porn?

Yahoo! to Acquire Tumblr, Promises not to screw it up [BusinessWire]
5 reasons why Yahoo is making a $1.1 billion mistake [Fortune]
A Brief History of Yahoo Buying and Ruining Things [Valleywag]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.