Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp to step down at end of 2017
Tumblr chief executive officer David Karp is resigning at the end of 2017, a decade after he founded the blogging website. Tumblr chief operating officer Jeff D'Onofrio will take over in his place.
Tumblr CEO and founder David Karp is leaving the company at the end of the year
In Karp's online blog, he posted a letter he wrote to his staff, stating that "After nearly 11 years, I've decided that 2017 will be my last year at Tumblr."
He went on to say that the company will be in good hands with D'Onofrio at the helm.
When Tumblr was created, it helped usher in a wave of personal blogging sites, and Yahoo bought the site several years ago for over $1bn, but it never generated the revenue desired by the web giant and Verizon acquired Yahoo earlier in 2017.
Karp did not give any financial reason for his stepping down, but he did receive $250m when the company was sold to Yahoo, and was given roughly $81m in 2013 to stay as CEO.
Still, he wrote with fondness about his decade with the site. "This team and place has been my family and my home for most of my adult life. That I have gotten to spend this time working with people so spectacularly talented and unstoppably optimistic is a blessing I hope you have shared, and will continue to share."
Karp handed it back to the employees to help keep the site alive. "The internet is at a crossroads of which this team can play a fundamental role in shaping. You are in the driver seat, and I am so excited to see where you go."