Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress.com, today acquired troubled old-school blogging site Tumblr from owner Verizon Communications Inc. months after it was rumored to be on the market.

Officially the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Wall Street Journal described the acquisition price as “nominal.” Tumblr had previously been acquired for $1.1 billion by Yahoo Inc. in 2013.

Along with acquiring the Tumblr brand, code and some 475 million blogs, 200 Tumblr employees will also be joining Automattic.

“Tumblr is a marquee brand that has started movements, allowed for true identities to blossom and become home to many creative communities and fandoms,” Verizon Media Chief Executive Officer Guru Gowrappan said in a statement. “We are proud of what the team has accomplished and are happy to have found the perfect partner in Automattic, whose expertise and track record will unlock new and exciting possibilities for Tumblr and its users.”

Yahoo was acquired by Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.86 billion in July 2016, and when the deal closed in 2017, Tumblr, along with the old Yahoo properties, were folded into a new business called Oath Inc. It was renamed Verizon Media Group in November.

The match between Tumblr and Verizon was never going to be a good one. Although Yahoo had a fairly liberal tolerance for adult content, Verizon did not. A scandal involving child pornography on the site in November prompted Verizon to announce a ban on adult content on Tumblr in December.

Many sites operate successfully with zero tolerance for adult content, but the problem with Tumblr was that a core of its most rabid users were using the service to post and share porn. The percentage of adult content on Tumblr was never known — some estimates put the figure between 10% and 20% — it was a big driver of traffic and taking that content away prompted a drop of 100 million page views one month later.

The bad news for Tumblr users who like adult content is that Automattic will not be lifting the porn ban. CEO Matt Mullenweg said that it would be business as usual, though some changes will be made under the hood to standardize Tumblr on the open-source WordPress technology stack.

Photo: 1nesdliveira/DeviantArt