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Pornhub Wants to Buy Tumblr Amid News That It's Up For Sale

So far, Verizon has declined to comment on the potential sale of Tumblr, but the company has at least one interested buyer. According to BuzzFeed, Pornhub is "extremely interested" in acquiring the blogging platform.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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Pornhub is interested in buying up Tumblr —and restoring its NSFW content— on news that the blogging platform is up for sale.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon Communications is looking to sell Tumblr in order to stablize the company's media business, which includes Yahoo, HuffPost and TechCrunch, among others.

So far, Verizon has declined to comment on the potential sale, but the company has at least one interested buyer. According to BuzzFeed, Pornhub is "extremely interested" in acquiring the blogging platform.

"I can confirm our interest," a Pornhub spokesperson told PCMag.

For years, Tumblr had been home to lots of pornography and erotic art. But in December, the blogging platform began banning the adult content in order to make Tumblr a "safe place" for all users. Weeks prior, the blogging platform had uncovered child pornography on the site, resulting in Tumblr's mobile app getting temporarily delisted from the Apple App Store.

The resulting porn ban sparked outrage among many former fans of the site, especially among erotic artists and members of the LGBTQ community, who argued that Tumblr was silencing certain sexual content from the mainstream internet. Since the ban went into effect, Tumblr's traffic has taken a noticeable dive, according to one estimate.

In its defense, Tumblr has said: "We made a strategic decision for the business that better positions it for long-term growth among more types of users. This was the right decision." However, an acquisition from Pornhub would radically change that calculus. The site, which is owned by MindGeek, is all about promoting porn across the world.

Back in 2013, Tumblr was sold for $1.1 billion to Yahoo, which was later bought up by Verizon. But by 2016, Yahoo had written down the blogging platform's value by $230 million.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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