Pioneering Internet firm Yahoo! rose to stardom in the personal computer era while blogging platform Tumblr has won fans in a world of smartphones, tablets and social networking. The following is a brief breakdown of the companies following Monday's news that Yahoo! will acquire Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
-- Yahoo! was founded in 1994 by Stanford University graduate students David Filo and Jerry Yang and incorporated the following year.
-- Yahoo! was originally a website referred to as "Jerry's guide to the world-wide web" and was designed as a searchable index of online offerings.
-- Yahoo! reports that more than a half-billion people visit its websites, which include a free web-based email service, each month.
-- Microsoft Corporation in early 2008 tried to buy California-based Yahoo! with an offer valued about $44.6 billion, but it was rejected.
-- Yahoo! began using Microsoft search engine Bing to power queries at its websites in 2009 and focused on tailoring digital content, including original news and entertainment shows, to the tastes of visitors.