Automattic To Buy Tumbler from Verizon

It’s just fun.
Or money.
It’s the same thing, isn’t it?
Can you hear me now?

–//–

Verizon to Sell Tumblr to WordPress.com Owner

Carrier sheds blogging site for nominal amount as part of media unit revamp

Tumblr is a free service that hosts millions of blogs where users can upload photos, music and art, but it has been overshadowed by rival social-media sites.

By Sarah Krouse
Aug. 12, 2019 4:00 pm ET

Verizon Communications Inc. (stock symbol VZ) has agreed to sell its blogging website Tumblr to the owner of popular online-publishing tool WordPress.com, unloading for a nominal amount a site that once fetched a purchase price of more than $1 billion.

Automattic Inc. will buy Tumblr for an undisclosed sum and take on about 200 staffers, the companies said. Tumblr is a free service that hosts millions of blogs where users can upload photos, music and art, but it has been dwarfed by Facebook, Reddit and other services.

Verizon became Tumblr’s owner through the carrier’s 2017 acquisition of Yahoo (symbol AABA) as part of a bid to build a digital media and advertising business. The wireless carrier began seeking a buyer for Tumblr earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

It discussed a potential transaction with a handful of parties, people familiar with the matter said. The sale price isn’t material to Verizon, one of the people said.

Verizon is in the process of revamping its media group, which struggled to meet revenue targets in recent years. The business, home to legacy Yahoo and AOL web properties such as HuffPost, TechCrunch, feminist media brand Makers and celebrity-interview site Build, is increasingly focused on subscription and original content.

The Tumblr acquisition is the largest ever in terms of price and head count for Automattic, the company’s Chief Executive Matt Mullenweg said in an interview. The San Francisco company has a stable of brands focused on

Foxconn’s Chaotic Denial: We do not use forced student labor to make Apple iPhones

Where’s Chairman Mao when you need him, eh?
/sarcasm

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Foxconn denies using forced student labor to make Apple iPhones

By Jessica Guynn and Julie MakinenSeptember 11, 2012, 11:24 a.m.

Foxconn Technology Group is denying reports in the Chinese media that it forced vocational students to work at factories that make iPhones.

Tourist and Apple devotes stop and pose to take pictures of the Apple logo adorned front facade of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California, USA, 09 September 2012, three days before the anticipated iPhone 5 announcement will be made. EPA/PETER DaSILVA

The controversy targeting Apple’s manufacturing partner in China comes as Apple is expected to unveil the latest iPhone on Wednesday.

Foxconn, which in recent months has come under heavy scrutiny in connection with working conditions in its factories, has conceded that

AT&T to allow iPhone 5 FaceTime to access Cellular network in iOS6

Remember: “Free” is just a come-on word.

In reality, it’s totally, utterly, wholly and entirely worthless and meaningless.

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AT&T to Allow Free FaceTime Calls Over Cellular With Mobile Share Plan

August 17, 2012 at 2:23 pm PT

As added incentive to sign up for its new shared data plans, AT&T announced today that it will

AT&T to deliberately slow down cellular network

It was only an inevitable matter of time before this happened. With the iPhone, AT&T bit off more than it could chew, and their network in many – if not most -places, still lags behind in quality, performance and reception. They have not invested in their infrastructure, to improve the quality of the network, and consequently, other networks are “nipping at their heels.” In stark contrast, Verizon saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall, and prepared their network for what they strongly suspected would happen.

Though many are not aware of it, regulation of communication carriers – landline, cellular, etc. – is done by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC sets the standards for quality, and ensures those standards are met through regulatory oversight. The cellular network has grown by leaps and bounds, and differs significantly from the landline/wire telephone network. Regulations require the landline/wire network to have numerous backups, re-routing alternatives, and redundancies. There cellular/wireless network has NO such requirement.

If the FCC were to

AT&T data taxing Class Action settlement reached

Everybody hates lawyers… until they need one.

While some would go so far as to extol alleged virtues of the abolition of taxation, asserting that no one should not pay any taxes whatsoever – such as the radical liberal Mises Institute, whose ivory towered Social Darwinistic professorial adherents theorize of such a Utopian society – the vast majority of us live in the real world, where taxation upon income, purchases and transactions are a daily part of life.

However, the purpose of this post is not to espouse a particular position, but to inform. Toward that end, it very much appears that for many years, AT&T Mobility has – in violation of applicable federal, state and/or local law(s) – independently taxed Internet service it provided to smartphone owners – such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, etc.

Thus, if you have ever used any AT&T Mobility Internet service – whether you have ever owned a smartphone or not (there are numerous cell phones that can access the Internet, even though they’re not categorized as “smartphones”) – you are a member of a class, and are entitled to a settlement.

For your convenience, there are few questions with answers posted below; and for further reading and details, the link to the website is: ATTMSettlement.com.

Apple Update creates problems on Toktumi’s Line2 for iPad, iPhone, iPod, iOS

Image via CrunchBase

iOProblems, iOBrother!

I’m a die-hard, long-time, Apple Macintosh only computer user. End of conversation. Period.

However, that hasn’t and doesn’t prevent me, or anyone else, from criticizing Apple products.

I use the iPhone 3GS model, with iOS 3.1.3 – jailbroken and unlocked – and