Yahoo launches eSport portal, aims to write down Tumblr value

Following a transformation plan that sharpens focus on news, sports, finance and lifestyle, Yahoo has launched an eSport portal — Yahoo Esports — to cover live gaming tournaments and latest sports feeds. It has hired known anchors from the television and gaming industry to lead the team.

The new portal will include gaming guides, editorial and video commentary, match pages, team rosters, stats, related schedules and game scores.

"We're approaching our coverage of eSports with the same tenacity and professionalism we always have with Yahoo Sports, News and Finance," said Bob Condor, vice president of Yahoo Sports Media.

Yahoo Esports will include industry-wide calendars, stats and player rankings as well. It will also incorporate a live chat feature to connect gaming fans to the gaming communities. Some of the titles will include League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Heroes of the Storm and Street Fighter V.

Renowned gaming host Andrea Rene will host the weekly show of League of Legends with Travis Gafford and Taylor Cocke, and cover Heroes of the Storm and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Dylan Walker.

According to Newzoo's 2016 Global Esports Market Report, the eSports industry reached over 226 million enthusiasts in 2015.

Yahoo also said it would further write down the goodwill value of its microblogging site Tumblr, within months of reducing it to $519m (£368.6m). This would decrease the company goodwill to just $298m.

"Given the partial impairment recorded in our Tumblr reporting unit in 2015, it is reasonably possible that changes in judgements, assumptions and estimates we made in assessing the fair value of goodwill could cause us to consider some portion or all of the remaining goodwill of the Tumblr reporting unit to become impaired, which comprised $519 million of our remaining $808 million goodwill balance as of December 31, 2015," the company wrote in a filing to stock regulator.

Yahoo acquired Tumblr in 2014 for $1.1bn.

In February, Yahoo announced the closure of seven verticals in order to focus on its core business. It also shuttered its business in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.