Yahoo Will Pay Tumblr Founder David Karp Up to $81 Million to Stick Around David Karp will earn about $20 million a year if he stays at Yahoo for the next four years.

By Julie Bort

This story originally appeared on Business Insider

Tumblr founder David Karp says that he didn't expect to sell his company to Yahoo, or sell it at all, this year. He says he was motivated to sell because Yahoo would give Tumblr a "shortcut" to "all the very hard things" Tumblr had to learn in order to grow.

But on Thursday Yahoo revealed another pretty good carrot to get Karp to sell: Yahoo will pay him $81 million in cash and stocks if he stays with the company for four years. So it said in a form filed to the SEC, and spotted by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka.

#insert RSS here# Specifically, he gets Yahoo common stock valued at $41 million and $40 million cash. It averages out to about $20 million a year.

The filing also says he gets unvested stock options and restricted stock units valued at $29 million. However, a Yahoo spokesperson tells us that goes to Tumblr employees.

Related: 3 Leadership Lessons From Tumblr's David Karp

When not writing for Business Insider I can usually be found on the trails, on my mountain bike or skis -- if you know where to look.

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