In the wake of Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr, there was some chatterabout how much runway David Karp would have had if he hadn’t sold the company.
Now we know, sort of: Tumblr, which had raised $125 million since 2007, had $16.6 million in cash left when Yahoo bought it. The disclosure comes via the 10-Q form Yahoo filed with the SEC today.
Tumblr’s ad business was still nascent as of last May, and it had a staff of 175 people. So it’s clear that if Marissa Mayer hadn’t stepped in, Karp would have had to raise more money in the not-very-distant future. Tumblr had last raised $85 million, in September 2011, from investors including The Chernin Group, Sequoia and Insight Venture Partners.
Now all of that is moot, of course. And speaking of Karp’s future: Yahoo said it will pay him up to $81 million in cash and stock if he sticks around. Those payments will be structured over the next four years.