Marcus Wohlsen/Wired

Yahoo's narrative arc as a company can be defined by its acquisitions, which taken together also serve as one take on the history of the web itself. In the Yahoo version of that history, founders and backers of overvalued companies enjoy huge exits while the buyer tends to learn too late that its exuberance was irrational. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will soon find out whether her company's $1.1 billion (£720 million) purchase of Tumblr becomes the latest chapter in a saga littered with mediocrity and failure. (1999) -- In one of the frothiest moments of the first dot-com bubble, Yahoo bought a financially unsuccessful internet radio startup for a reported $5.7 billion (£3.7 million) in stock and made Mark Cuban very rich. The service was rebranded Launchcast and has cycled through multiple corporate partners as better ideas -- from the first Napster to Spotify -- have made the very idea of "broadcasting" on the internet obsolete.

Geocities (1999) -- When the first great '90s nostalgia movie hits, we'll undoubtedly meet the protagonist as he rocks out to Pearl Jam while creating some sweet tiled backgrounds and table-based layouts on his GeoCities page. It's hard to fault Yahoo for swapping $3.6 billion (£2.4 billion) in stock for what at the time was one of the web's most trafficked sites. It's easier to blame the company for allowing GeoCities to sputter in dot-com limbo before shuttering the US version a decade later.

Overture Services (2003) -- Yahoo's purchase of Overture for more than $1.6 billion (£1 billion) stands as its largest acquisition not directly aimed at consumers. The Google AdWords competitor was quickly rebranded as a Yahoo property and continues to serve up a high volume of internet advertising. But Yahoo has struggled to get those ads to generate as much revenue per ad as Google's, and has faced the wrath of advertisers over changes to the service.

Right Media (2007) -- To bulk up in its battle against Google, Yahoo spent $680 million (£450 million) to complete its acquisition of ad auction service Right Media. The purchase helped fill out Yahoo's Panama ad platform but hasn't helped Yahoo close the gap in the company's perpetual race to catch up to its dominant competitor.

Kelkoo (2004) -- Yahoo bought European price-comparison site Kelkoo in 2004 for nearly $600 million (£390 million). In 2008, Yahoo reportedly unloaded the sputtering service for about one-quarter of what it paid. (2002) -- Yahoo battled online job search rival Monster Worldwide to acquire HotJobs for $436 million (£286 million). Less than a decade later, Monster took HotJobs off Yahoo's fumbling hands for $225 million (£148 million).

eGroups (2000) -- In one of the few bright spots in Yahoo's history of acquisitions, its $432 million (£283 million) purchase of eGroups helped build the foundation of the incredibly popular Yahoo Groups. But popularity has never been Yahoo's main problem. Converting that popularity into profit is where the company has always foundered, and its priority if the Tumblr acquisition is to avoid a GeoCities repeat.

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