New York tech scene celebrates Tumblr purchase
If there were a weekly competition for attention in the tech world, New York City would be a clear winner this week. Members of the city’s tech scene are still celebrating the announcement that Yahoo will buy the New York City-based blogging service Tumblr.
Andrew Rasiej, chairman of NY Tech Meetup, says the $1.1 billion purchase has a lot of people in the city’s start-up community feeling vindicated that Tumblr chose New York as its home, as opposed to Silicon Valley.
“Any city that has high-quality human capital is able to take advantage of technology in new ways,” Rasiej says. “Frankly, New York has the highest concentration of human capital in the world.”
Rachel Haot is New York City’s Chief Digital Officer and part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Administration. She says the purchase proves what New York boosters have been saying for years.
“[It] shows the momentum of tech growth in New York City, especially with younger demographics and mobile,” Haot says. “This is happening in a platform that was grown and cultivated here in New York City.”
It’s a nice moment in the sun. But the so-called Silicon Alley still has a long way to go before it commands the kind of cash that Silicon Valley does.
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