Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Google Inc (GOOG): Marissa Mayer & Gaming Acquisitions

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While Tumblr has stayed away from display advertisements, it has integrated native advertisements like promoted blog posts quite nicely into its product. Unfortunately, most companies balked at the opportunity, and Tumblr brought in just $13 million in revenue last year.

Part of the problem is companies simply don’t know how to use native advertising effectively to resonate with Tumblr’s young audience. Here’s where Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and its hoards of new data on young people, can help. By providing companies with more information on what kinds of advertisements young people respond to, it can help build Tumblr’s revenue.

All over the place

Mayer has been criticized for acquiring businesses that are seemingly unrelated, and all over the place. What does cross-platform gaming have to do with blogging? It’s simple, Mayer is trying to reinvent itself, appeal to a younger crowd, and all of its acquisitions are targeted at growing industries. Even if they don’t all pan out, each can provide valuable data to improve the others, as is the case with the companies two most recent acquisitions.

The article Marissa Mayer: Gaming Acquisitions originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Adam Levy.

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