Picture This: Yahoo May be Trying to Buy Imgur

Earlier this year, Yahoo and its (then) new CEO Marissa Mayer made headlines when the company bought the hugely popular microblogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Since then, Yahoo has been brute-forcing its way back into relevance by gobbling up lots of other companies over the past few months, like PlayerScale, Rockmelt, Admovate, and more. But a post on Business Insider today reports that Yahoo may be considering another high-profile acquisition, this time for Imgur, the preferred image-hosting site for users of Reddit.

The post speculates that Yahoo “would have to offer something between $100 million and $500 million” in order to make such a deal a reality. That’s because Imgur is sustaining itself financially and has tons of users, meaning that it’s not looking to turn a buck on a popular service that’s never been able to earn money. The post also points out that it sells image-hosting capacity to third parties, including Yahoo. As such, it’s possible that Imgur might be content to rebuff Yahoo’s advances in favor of going it alone, much like Snapchat did last month when it refused Facebook’s purchase offer of a cool $3 billion. Turning down ridiculously huge buyout offers might become all the rage!

That said, I’d still be surprised if Imgur didn’t accept Yahoo’s advances. Snapchat’s refusal, I think, was an anomaly. I’m still curious as to whether or not that company will rue the day it turned its back on $3 billion, and I expect that Imgur would want to take advantage of partnering with Yahoo now that it’s becoming more vital than ever before.

Considering how image-focused Tumblr already is, wouldn’t marrying the microblogging site with Imgur under one corporate parent be a no-brainer? If these rumors are true, I’m sure Mayer is pitching a similar vision to Imgur. And the obvious benefits for Yahoo in terms of Imgur’s huge subscriber base are obvious. But I can also see a world in which Imgur is acquired by Reddit and Condé Nast’s corporate parent, Advance Publications. Considering Imgur was apparently created specifically for Reddit’s community of users, it might make sense to see if Advance might want to take it on as well.

Of course, until anyone comments on this officially, it’s all just words. Hopefully we’ll find out more soon. Maybe Yahoo will offer to buy me next! I will save them time: Yahoo, I accept. I’ll take cash or a check.