Assuming this is true, does the 1.1 billion in cash tell us that this is purely about the property and not in any way about the team, or is that over-reading / misreading the tea leaves?
Nope, there could still be vesting periods/golden handcuffs etc., this just means it was cash rather than Yahoo stock. It tells us that Yahoo preferred to spend cash than stock, or Tumblr's founders wanted cash rather than Yahoo stock, or a combination of the two, which can be a starting point for any amount of speculation.
