Flickr-Yahoo rumors smell like a deal
The rumors have been flying fast on Friday that Flickr has made a deal to be acquired by Yahoo!
Business 2.0's Om Malik blogged today that, "Most of the deal-related chatter is coming from blogging world insiders who have said that Flickr might have inked the papers last week, but Yahoo is holding off on an announcement until March 1."
So far all lips are sealed tight. On Flickr Central, co-founder Caterina Fake posts that the rumors are a retread of a Business 2.0 story suggesting a Yahoo! purchase might be in the works.
Caterina says: "We talked to a guy at Business 2.0 back in November or December -- that was the start of all these rumors -- and we got the sense he was fishing for a story that wasn't there. Of course, this doesn't surprise me anymore. Reporters have quoted Stewart as saying something I said, quoted me as saying the opposite of what I said, omitted the material part of what I said and published just the subordinate clauses. ... But it's still kind of fun having all these people talking about us. Makes us feel like the popular kids at high school. Who's dating who!!!!"
That is a classic non-denial, which doesn't deal with the rumor at hand, at all but simply describes a story from months ago. More than anything that makes me think it's true. It reminds me of when O'Reilly's GNN was being bought by AOL. AOL execs showed up and advised us, "If you're asked about it, just say 'yes, we're talking to AOL - we're talking to lots of people.'" When the rumor broke that AOL was also buying WAIS Inc., I asked my friend Brewster Kahle about it, and he said pretty much word for word, "We talk to lots of people." That's when I knew he had a deal.
This smells like a deal. As Om notes, "the noise level is pretty high."
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