One day after her mega-deal announcement, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told CNBC that the $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr is "part of enhancing our growth story" and the effects will start to be felt next year..

"There is a lot of new energy in the core of Yahoo," she told CNBC. "I think that's really exciting."

Mayer was interviewed sitting next to Tumbler founder 26-year-old David Karp during the interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

"We really wanted to be able to move faster as a company. I think you can see that we've achieved a lot more velocity and I think that's what's being felt right now," she said.

To value the deal, Mayer said that the traditional valuation analysis was done and "all of those methodologies supported this valuation."

"Tumblr has a really good thing going. I'm cognizant of the fact that we don't want to mess that up," Mayer added.

She said Tumblr will operate independently.

Karp, who is a high school dropout, said creating Tumblr was a "mission" to serve the online creative community. "This is an incredible opportunity to serve that mission for a long time. This is a long-term thing for me," he said.

 "I have no idea what Marissa's expectations are, but this is still my baby and where I'm giving all of my heart and attention." 

Here are some of the milestones on Mayer's watch:
 

• ALIBABA: In September, Yahoo completed a long-awaited, $7.6 billion deal for Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba to buy back half of Yahoo's 40 percent stake. Most of the proceeds will go to its shareholders, but Yahoo has an extra $1.3 billion to finance acquisitions or hire new talent. Some of that money is going to the Tumblr deal.
•  MOBILE: Mayer has made mobile services one of her top priorities, as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablet computers. During her tenure, Yahoo has created a new weather app for Apple's iPhone. It also has redesigned an email app for smartphones, as well as the app for its Flickr photo service on the iPhone and iPad. But in February, Mayer also said Yahoo will be better served with just 12 to 15 mobile applications, down from a ``scattered'' portfolio of as many as 75 different programs in recent years.
• WEB MAKEOVER: Yahoo unveiled a long-awaited redesign of its home page in February _ the first in four years. The new approach is meant to get people to visit more frequently and linger for longer periods of time. Yahoo said it has developed more sophisticated formulas to determine which topics are most likely to appeal to different people so the news feed can be fine-tuned to cater to different tastes.
• PERSONNEL: Ross Levinsohn, who was in charge of Yahoo's media and advertising services and served as interim CEO before Mayer's hiring, left the company. Software industry veteran Ken Goldman was named chief financial officer to replace cost-cutting specialist Tim Morse, who was hired in 2009. Alfred Amoroso stepped down as board chairman in April and plans to leave next month, which will make him the eighth director to leave since early 2012.
•  STOCK PERFORMANCE:  Mayer's efforts at Yahoo have been well-received on Wall Street, although most of the 70 percent surge in Yahoo's stock price under Mayer's leadership has been driven by the rising value of Yahoo's remaining 24 percent in Alibaba. Unlike Yahoo, Alibaba's growth has been accelerating. That success has been steadily increasing Alibaba's estimated market value during the past year. Analysts believe Yahoo may be able to make another $10 billion to $20 billion, before taxes, when it sells the rest of its Alibaba holdings.
• ACQUISITIONS: Yahoo has bought several startups primarily to obtain more engineering talent to build help build better mobile applications. It also bought London startup Summly, which makes a mobile application created by a teenage entrepreneur who sought an easier way to read news stories and other content on the smaller screens of smartphones.
• Now, it is buying Tumblr in the most expensive acquisition since the Sunnyvale, Calif., company bought online search engine Overture a decade ago for $1.3 billion in cash and stock. Yahoo is paying mostly cash and expects to complete the deal by the end of the year. Mayer is betting Tumblr will provide Yahoo with a captivating hook to reel in more traffic and advertisers on smartphones and tablet computers. More than half of Tumblr's users connect through the mobile app and engage in an average of seven visits per day.
   

What price a blog software -- and network of bloggers around the world? For Yahoo, about $1 billion, according to reports.

Yahoo is considering acquiring at least a piece of Tumblr, several tech news sources reported this week. It's not clear if Yahoo is going for an investment or an outright buyout, according to AllThingsD and VentureBeat.

If it's the latter, Tumblr -- despite taking home about $13 million in revenue -- could be worth up to $1 billion thanks to new advertising efforts.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has made acquiring startups -- or, as the blogs put it, acquiring "cool" -- a hallmark of her tenure in the corner office at Yahoo, the brand of which has taken a hit in recent years.

Tumblr's value may be in its future. Tumblr recently introduced a mobile ad platform, and Yahoo -- as well as everybody else -- is very interested in monetizing mobile.

Apple loves all things new -- and that includes its stores.

The highly-profitable company has submitted plans for a new retail store in San Francisco's Union Square, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The new store will inhabit the space formerly occupied by the Levi's store at Post Street, a few blocks away from the current Stockton and Ellis streets location, which has been heavily impacted by Central Subway construction.

There's no word yet on when the store will make the move, but the new space will be "45 percent larger" and employ 50 more people than the 350 people currently at work at the Apple store.

Mayor Ed Lee, said to be "excited" by the move, will also enjoin the company to make the new building "green."

The Blue Angels have buzzed their last fly-by through the skies of San Francisco.

Or have they?

Budget cuts recently forced the U.S. Navy to cancel several Blue Angel flyovers, including our beloved Fleet Week here in the Bay Area. But a local entrepreneur wants to raise money to bring them back.

Marc McCabe has taken to redefined Crowdtilt.com to try and raise $650,000 to bring the Angels back. No guarantee that it will work; this is, after all, a government agency we're talking about. But it's a cool effort, that has brought in about $7,000, with a little less than a month left in the campaign.

Much like Kickstarter, the money you donate only gets taken if the final goal is met.

McCabe, a tech worker at San Francisco's Airbnb, has a lofty goal, but you never know. Maybe the Blue Angels will once again cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge, thanks to investors.

Scott cruises on Twitter: @Scottbudman

The news from Angelina Jolie has spurred lots of reaction: Cheers, yes, but also awareness.

The fact that the Oscar-winning actress and director had the preventative double mastectomy - announced Tuesday in a New York Times piece - because of genetic information has put genetic testing in a new light.

The immediate problem is that when many people think "genetic testing," they also jump to the conclusion: "Too expensive, and my healthcare plan probably won't pay for it."

MORE: "I Had Double Mastectomy to Prevent Breast Cancer"

It's also a bit mysterious: How can my background, and that of my family, help tell me what might lie in my future?

Both of those problems are being tackled head-on by technology companies. In the Bay Area, a Mountain View-based startup called 23andMe - co-founded by Sergey Brin's wife, Anne Wojcicki - offers genetic testing (and education) starting at 99 dollars. It's meant to help people learn about their genetic makeup, at a price that allows far more people to do so than ever before.

MORE: Cancer Survivors, Fellow Celebs Commend Jolie on Preventative Mastectomy

We're also seeing reaction from a company called Myriad Genetics. Based in Salt Lake City, Myriad says one of its products can be used in the genetic testing that Jolie had. As more attention comes to such testing, Myriad saw a jump in its stock price on Tuesday.

While it makes sense that most of the attention regarding Jolie's announcement will focus on breast cancer and its prevention, the issue of genetic testing is also getting a boost. Thanks to companies looking at new, high-tech ways to bring such testing to more people, this will likely be a helpful development.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 Comments? Scott is on Twitter: @scottbudman

Sales tax, meal tax -- culture tax? Mais oui.

President Francois Holland will decide this summer if France should slap "new taxes on technology giants like Apple and Google" to "finance cultural projects," Reuters reported.

The notion isn't quite as foreign as it may sound to Americans. Already, television users, TV rand radio broadcasters and "Internet service providers" in France pay fees "to fund art, cinema and music," Reuters reported.

Those fees aren't being paid by the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon, and the idea is that these technology businesses could also pay to help creators of content.

The French government notes that its people spend more money on hardware than they do on content, Reuters reported.

Europe's more left-leaning governments -- Hollande is a card-carrying Socialist; the government replaced a right-leaning government led by Nicolas Sarkozy -- have of late been at odds with American-based tech firms.

Forces in France helped block a purchase by Yahoo of a stake in video site Dailymotion, and earlier this year, German and French interests dropped a bid that would have made Google pay news sources for Google news links to articles, Reuters reported.

Google did pledge to invest 60 million euros in a news-support fund, Reuters reported.
 

To learn about Internet privacy, the White House will go straight to the source.

To Twitter.

A Twitter attorney who worked for the micro-blogging Web site as legal director will go to Washington to work for President Barack Obama, according to reports.

CNET first reported the appointment of Nicole Wong, 44, of Berkeley, to become the White House's first "chief privacy officer."

Wong worked for Google for a long time, in which she became known as "The Decider" for her decision-making prowess around copyright and privacy requests, the news site reported.

Twitter has in recent years become a focal point of law enforcement search requests -- but the Web site has also become known for its resistance to "overly-broad" subpoenas from police and government authorities, according to reports.

Wong has both a law degree and a masters in journalism from UC Berkeley, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

A teenager who pilfered a tablet on a Muni bus Wednesday morning was apprehended following a foot chase, according to reports.

The morning commute for a 28-year old woman using a tablet -- whether it was an iPad or other brand is not immediately known -- was interrupted at 7:15 a.m. when a teenager "robbed her device," the San Francisco Examiner reported.

Tablet in hand, the 17-year old suspect attempted to make his escape from the 44 O'Shaughnessy bus when police arrived. He "was caught after a foot chase with a cop," the newspaper reported.

The tablet is back in safe hands.

Twitter is expanding out of San Francisco after all.

The micro-blogging Web site -- which recently moved into Market Street office space in San Francisco following a tax break from the city -- has leased space for a satellite office in Sunnyvale, according to real estate agents.

Twitter has agreed to lease 8,000 square feet of space in downtown Sunnyvale near Caltrain, Colliers International told the Oakland Tribune.

"It's good to see some movement from San Francisco to Silicon Valley," Colliers broker Kevin Moul told the newspaper.

Between 40 to 50 employees will toil for Twitter at the new location, according to an estimate. Representatives from the company did not comment to the newspaper. It's also not certain when the company will make the move -- "interior improvements" are currently underway.

Twitter joins Apple and Google as Silicon Valley tech firms opening up office space in Sunnyvale.

Fledgling digital music mavens and developers are encouraged to apply for the Startup Innovators Challenge at SF MusicTech Summit at Hotel Kabuki on May 28.

The 12th annual event is a pivotal one in the digital music space, drawing international visitors and poising the aspiring entrepreneur for some incredible networking (and maybe even funding) opportunities.

Applications are open even to those who haven't registered for SF MusicTech, lowering what could be an economic barrier for some people; the current registration price of $279 expires on May 10 and climbs up to $600 on the day of the show.

The Startup Innovators Challenge last took place at SF MusicTech's February event and featured companies such as Plug.DJ, a virtual platform to play music and videos with friends and strangers online; CueNotes, a soon-to-be-public site for crowdsourcing facts and observations about songs to create the ultimate liner notes; and Lyricle, an app/game that tests your capacity to remember popular lyrics.

Tesla is for real.

If you had any doubts, just look to Wall Street this morning. Shares of Tesla Motors stock (TSLA) have soared about 25 percent so far this morning. Over the last couple of months, the share price has doubled, adding close to four billion dollars to its market value.

Even more impressively (at least for me, a non stock holder), look at your local roadways. Teslas are everywhere these days. They're outselling The Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, despite the fact that the Model S is much more expensive. What was at first a trickle of Teslas in the wild has become a steady stream.

According to the company's latest earning report, Tesla sold 4,900 cars over the last three months, with sales expected to pick up even more steam in the month ahead. Net income for the quarter was $11.2 million dollars, sharply up from the $89.9 million dollar loss recorded the year before.

On top of all that, Consumer Reports just published a very favorable review, giving the Model S a 99 out of a possible 100 rating. Yowza. This from the magazine that couldn't bring itself to recommend the iPhone 5.

There are, of course, future roadblocks in the way for Tesla. But recently, at least, this company has done just about everything right, and it's being richly rewarded.

Scott, who test drove the Model S, is on Twitter: @scottbudman

Your local public library is evolving.

Instead of reading about inventions, you can now create your own thanks to a new 3-D printer.

The Sunnyvale Public Library is the first in the Bay Area to get one and starting in June you'll be able to see your designs come to life using plastic filament.

“I think I will make a model of my greenhouse invention. I could use it so people can get a better understanding of what it would look like” said Brendon Owcarek, a library patron.

The library purchased the $2,500 printer with money from a federal grant.

The printers have been in the headlines recently after it was used to made a functioning plastic gun and a company said it plans to post the blueprints on how to do it online. Library staff says it won’t be possible to make a 3-D gun on the library computer.

"Librarians will be monitoring the machine so you can’t just walk in off the streets and print out something. We will be reviewing and vetting all designs and we will be in charge of putting in the card that creates the product” said Lisa Rosenblum, Director of Library Services for the City Of Sunnyvale.

She also says if something suspicious or inappropriate shows up on the preview monitor then you won't be able to use the machine.

You also have to sign up online first and take an instructional class before you can turn plastic filament into creations like a bracelet, owl or key. Making an object is fast, you can have a bracelet in your hands in just eleven minutes..

The library director says the printer is a good match for budding inventors in Sunnyvale, because the branch already has its own patent resource center.

You may walk out with something cool or quirky in hand, but the hope is the bigger gift will be learning how to transform your idea into something tangible.

Get ready to download your next copy of Photoshop, Premier, and Acrobat. Adobe is going completely out of the box.

Jumping all in when it comes to software downloads, Adobe announced on monday that it will no longer sell its software products out of a box. From now on, everything will be downloaded from its "Creative Cloud." That is, you'll bring all of the Adobe products you like to you via the Internet, and will not have to go to a store and buy it from a box.

The monthly subscription, according to Adobe, will be $50.

Adobe has been trying this out for a while; as part of its recent financial update, the San Jose software company says sales of software from the cloud has been growing steadily. This will make it easier for it to go all-in on the cloud.

Yes, we expect some Adobe fans to complain a bit - mostly, though, thanks to things like iTunes and DropBox, we're getting used to snagging our products from the cloud.

The move to the cloud will likely also be felt in the entertainment industry, which seems to adopt more Silicon Valley technology with every passing month. Now, creative types will go straight to the Creative Cloud to get what they want.

Says Adobe's Scott Morris, "During the creative process, on any project, everyone has access to the same files, really a great way to collaborate."

Another benefit to Adobe? Less piracy. Instead of finding out that one sale of Photoshop leads to several people using it (whether in a business, or a neighborhood), the downloads will likely curb much of the piracy that costs Adobe so much money every year. If this really catches on, expect software to be sold only this way - along with video games, etc etc.

Yes, we've been on this "cloudy" path for a while now. Adobe's move is a big one to push the entire industry in that direction.

Scott can be found on Twitter: @scottbudman

Facebook launched Trusted Contacts, a new password recovery feature where Facebook friends can be contacted if a user needs access to his or account.

It was originally launched back in 2011 as Trusted Friends, but now it's been rebranded and updated, according to the Next Web. Users can choose between three to five friends to contact in case of a forgotten password or a security measure to stop others from hacking into one's account. Users can choose those three to five friends at any time from Facebook's security settings.

Of course, Facebook also wants users to choose a trusted person, such as a sibling, parent or best friend that can be reached without using Facebook. You would need to be able to communicate to someone via email or phone rather than the social network -- because you don't have your password. The social network also wants users to choose three or more contacts just in case a couple of those contacts can't be reached.

The idea of using friends to help you access Facebook is a lot more attractive than answering a few security questions that one immediately forgets.

Google has hired computer games veteran Noah Falstein to become its Chief Game Designer.

But wait, you may ask, since when does Google have game designers? Apparently Google is working on a "major gaming project," according to TechCrunch. It's unknown if the move to create games is based on making Google Glass a singular experience or simply that Google has decided to focus on gaming.

A previous version of his LinkedIn profile said his position was Chief Game Designer at Android Play Studio, but was switched recently to Chief Game Designer at Google. This isn't a surprise since Google created the Android platform and Google Play, which sells games and other apps. Falstein also has a history of creating "Serious Games" which means game techniques for apps other than for "pure entertainment," TechCrunch reported.

One of Silicon Valley’s pioneers is giving up on the Golden State.

Dennis Dauenhauer worked at National Semi-conductor back in the 1970’s.

He now runs All Sensors in Morgan Hill, a company that makes pressure sensors for medical and military equipment, like the Predator Drone.

But California taxes are driving Dauenhauer and his manufacturing facility out of the state.

“From an economic standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to stay in California and pay a huge capital gains tax. It’s a one-time tax when you can move your operation out of state and not have to pay that tax,” said Dauhenauer.

Dauenhauer is moving his operation to Austin, Texas.

“Well, its unfortunate because its our preference to stay here, let the children grow up here,” said Dauenhauer.

Dauenhauer said the only reason is the tax reason.  He said if he sells his company in California for, say $10 million, he has to pay 13.3-percent in Capital Gains Tax.

That’s not the case if he sold it as a Texas company.

And that was one of the sales pitches used by Texas Gov. Rick Perry when he recently visited the Bay Area, with the purpose of luring California companies to his state.

The Austin Police Department also visited San Jose on a recent recruiting trip, using Texas’ tax friendly policies.

So Dauenhauer is packing it up, and taking his Silicon Valley genius from the Golden State, to the Lone Star State.

Warren Buffett — known for investing in traditional media — has finally joined the ranks of new media.

The billionaire unveiled his new Twitter handle on Thursday during a speech. Buffett posted his first tweet at 12:20 p.m. ET and had amassed over 75,000 followers by Thursday afternoon.

Warren is in the house.

— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013

The business mogul has shied away from investing in technology companies because he says he can't predict the future of those businesses the way he can with insurance or manufacturing companies.

Buffett says even though he may not understand Twitter well, he knows it can't be all bad because one of the company's co-founders is from his home state of Nebraska.