>But these are indeed success stories. That's two well known takeovers. But for every Instagram there are 5 Tumblrs.
Can't disagree with this was more aiming to disprove your hyperbole, so opting to not engage in the more implicit general discussion of "are takeovers ever worth it beyond minting management and professional services?", I am refining the scope of the discussion to takeovers involving high-profile companies:
Perhaps the perceived prevalence of failures for a given takeover is a by-product of the winner-takes-all dynamics of internet businesses which is becoming more apparent:
In this particular case, Yahoo failed to find its core winning competency and is (slowly!) falling into obscurity and Tumblr was one casualty of its many attempts to stem its decline.
YouTube was left alone for done time, and very gradual changes seem to have been made. Even then there were issues.
But these are indeed success stories. That's two well known takeovers. But for every Instagram there are 5 Tumblrs.