• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 20, 2013

Yahoo on Thursday said it has completed its $1.1 billion of acquisition of blogging site Tumblr after initially announcing the deal a month ago. Through the purchase, Yahoo hopes to better compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter in social media and appeal to a younger set of users more focused on newer Web and mobile properties.

In its release today, the Web portal reiterated that Tumblr will be operated independently under founder and CEO David Karp, and that the company’s service and brand will remain separate from Yahoo. Yahoo’s “support and belief in our vision gives us an opportunity now to be the most ambitious we've ever been," said Karp, in a statement.

Some of New York-based Tumblr’s early employees, however, have departed in the wake of the Yahoo acquisition including creative director Jacob Bijani and director and media evangelist Mark Coatney.