Tumblr Hires Former NYT Exec Brian Murphy as New CTO

Brian Murphy seems hopeful to sail the cruise of Tumblr in the right direction, with substantial growth and international expansion

Yahoo microblogging platform and social networking site, Tumbr, has appointed Brain D. Murphy as its new Chief Technology Officer, Re/code reports. Mr. Murphy was the Vice President of Engineering at The New York Times previously.

Mr. Murphy has held several key places in a number of IT, tech, and media firms in the past. He had been working at The New York Times for the last five years, and was in charge of several projects, including digital products, mobile, e-commerce, advertising, and search.

He is expected to take charge of his new role by the end of next month. He will report to president and CEO Jeff D’Onofrio. According to Re/code, Mr. Murphy will be working to develop and support mobile products. The company believes that nearly 80% of its site’s traffic routes from mobile/handheld devices.

In a statement to Re/code, Mr. Murphy said he hoped to add significant value to Tumblr in the near future, adding that greater focus will be placed on mobile, with a goal to increase performance in international markets.

Critics are increasingly skeptical of the appointment. The naysayers believe he will not make much of a difference to Tumblr and its future growth prospects. Yahoo has been going through turbulent times. CEO Marissa Myer's appointment hasn't really helped the once-dominant search company. However, while Yahoo's core business is not performing well, Tumblr is still an active product for the company. Recently, Yahoo announced it will dedicate an exclusive sales force to Tumblr. However, layoffs in the recent past show it has been unable to utilize its human capital satisfactorily.

According to DMR, Tumblr had a user base 550 million users as of last year, while the total number of blogs associated with its domain amounted to 280.4 million as of February 20. Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion in June, 2013. It was created by former CEO and founder David Karp in 2007. Only time will tell if Mr. Muprhy can bring in profits for the once dominant company, even if they're limited just to Tumblr.

Source: http://www.technewstoday.com

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