One way or another, it’s sounding increasingly likely that Delicious will wind up with a new owner. After a rumor suggested last week that Yahoo had sold the property for $5 million, a report’s now claimed that Yahoo is about to sell Delicious for perhaps 30 percent of that sum.
Jay Yarow, the author of the fresh report, wrote, “Yahoo is about to close a deal to sell bookmarking site Delicious for $1-$2 million, says a source familiar with the discussions.”
Then, although this is heading a bit further out on a limb, Yarow continued, “Our source isn’t sure what company is buying it, but says it’s a ‘strategic partner,’ something like StumbleUpon.”
The possibility of a sale has caught the Delicious community’s attention, in any event, and with good reason. Four months ago, an internal Yahoo document leaked and let the world know that Yahoo intended to “sunset” Delicious, so an acquisition would allow for its continued existence.
A sale would count as something of a victory for Yahoo, too, at least compared to just killing Delicious. The PR would be worth a little, after all (versus being responsible for terminating the well-known property), and $1-$2 million is better than nothing in terms of payments.
It’s of course not great for Yahoo that the rumored sale price dropped by at least $3 million in the space of seven days, however, so we’ll be sure to keep an eye on the situation.
One last financial tidbit: Yahoo’s stock is up 1.64 percent so far this morning, putting it ahead of the Dow (up 1.18 percent) and Nasdaq (up 0.94 percent).
UPDATE: A Yahoo spokesperson contacted WebProNews to say, “As we have mentioned in the past, part of our organizational streamlining involves shifting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond. We’re actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service, our users and our shareholders. We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and will communicate specific plans when appropriate.”