Pornhub wants to take over Tumblr and allow sexually explicit footage again

Pornhub is “extremely interested” in taking over Tumblr, which is reportedly being put up for sale. PornHub would like to “restore” Tumblr by allowing sexually explicit material on the platform again.

Reports that Verizon would like to sell Tumblr came out last Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported on the matter citing sources familiar with the matter. Verizon, a major US telecom provider, would like to sell Tumblr to weather some financial hardship. The social network has never really performed well in competition with services like Medium, Facebook and Instagram, WSJ writes. The ban on sexually explicit material was also seen by many as taking away Tumblr’s strongest quality.

Pornhub expresses its enthusiasm towards BuzzFeed. The porn site sees “clear synergies between the two platforms.” It is not yet clear whether the deal will actually go through. Verizon hasn’t officially announced a possible sale of Tumblr, and the Wall Street Journal’s anonymous sources also say it’s not entirely certain that Tumblr will actually be sold.

It would be the third time that Tumblr has changed hands. The platform was founded in 2007, acquired in 2013 by Yahoo, which returned to Verizon in 2017. Although Tumblr is a well-known name, the value of the site has fallen sharply over the years: Yahoo paid $1.1 billion for it in 2013, but three years later the value of Tumblr was reduced by $712 million.