Shanti’s Dispatches

Is it just me, or are secrets hard to keep in the blogosphere space?

(*cough Six Apart acquiring LiveJournal*)

Now this… You’ve heard the rumors. Now it’s official.

Yahoo has acquired Flickr.

Here’s Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake on the acquisition:

Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!

Woohoo! What does this mean? It means that we’ll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid, schedule conjugal visits between trips to the colo….wait! That’s not what you want to know.

Full post here.

This acquisition makes total sense from all sides.

Why would Flickr go the VC route, when they probably got a hefty valuation for outright purchase from Yahoo?

I love Flickr, I really, really do… but we also have no idea what its revenue numbers are. I do think it will be a huge company (or whatever, now, for Yahoo).

But I’m willing to bet they sold at a hefty, premium valuation to their earnings multiple here.

On the flip side, Yahoo has acquired a great company. It looks like the Flickr folk are committed to the long haul, and won’t just be cashing out after a few years of effort.

You can bookmark this, digg this or check the cosmos