So there goes Tumblr, sucked into the maw of Yahoo. But would someone please buy Pinterest already?
You can bet plenty of companies have already tried. A few months back there were a spate of rumors that Google was hot on the trail of the jQuery Masonry-mad photo-pinning site that has inspired the redesign of everything from question-and-answer site Quora to the latest efforts at Google+. Nothing came of it.
One early investor told Wired Business at the time that Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann “was in it for the long-haul” and not interested in selling out just yet – whatever the price. And that price just keeps getting higher.
In February, Pinterest closed a $200 million round of funding at an estimated $2.5 billion valuation. With Monday’s $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition, the price tag for Pinterest ticked up a fair bit.
Pinterest has become that rarest of specimens, at least in the consumer/social world: an independent, massively scaling service that not only bestows the “cool” factor that every large company seems to crave but, in Pinterest’s case, offers a huge opportunity to turn its "things I want to buy" essence into an e-commerce cash machine. It is the last of its kind.
In that context, Silbermann is wise to hold out. In the absence of another service that outshines Pinterest, he has all the leverage. Sure, something new could come along, just as Pinterest did, and re-order and redefine how we collect, display and discuss the things we desire in our lives. That will happen at some point, but for now, Pinterest is it.
So who ought to be declaring their boundless and very well-heeled ardor for Pinterest? Marissa Mayer might have been interested; however, Pinterest is too rich a prize for Yahoo – it simply can’t afford it, especially now (which is why it had better make the Tumblr acquisition count). Google certainly could write the check, and you can bet the wooing continues. Apple could afford it, but Apple isn’t in the running for something like Pinterest because it just isn’t playing in the world of web-based services and commerce on the level that Google is - something Apple CEO Tim Cook needs to remedy.
Where an acquisition makes huge sense is with the two titans of e-commerce, eBay and Amazon. Pinterest users are mainlining their intentions for purchase, and both eBay and Amazon are all about taking advantage of that desire. In eBay's case, the site's recent homepage redesign is a self-evident nod to the power of pinning. Both companies could afford to pay out for Pinterest, though not with the same ease as Google.
The other option is for Pinterest to stick it out solo and go public. But for that to happen it needs to turn on revenue in a very meaningful way, something that hasn’t happened yet. Which way will Pinterest go? Silbermann isn’t saying. But if you start to see him turn the corner on going after gobs of revenue, chances are an IPO is on his mind. If flipping the revenue switch remains a lesser priority in the coming six months to a year, the acquisition route seems the likely path. In that case, let the bidding wars begin—or in the case of Pinterest, continue.
