Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Yahoo wants to buy Imgur , the popular photo-sharing site, and began "serious talks" with the startup this fall, according to Business Insider.

The report cites an unnamed source with knowledge of the talks. San Francisco-based Imgur, which is a favorite of Reddit users, spreads memes across the Web with its following of loyal users. No price has been determined for the potential acquisition, but Business Insider guesses Yahoo would have to offer between $100 million and $500 million. Valleywag's Nitasha Tiku reported that the price could be as much as $200 million.

Because Imgur has such a valuable collection of users (100 million unique users a month), has many VC suitors, and is very social, the acquisition would likely not just be an "aqui-hire" -- in which the main purpose of the transaction is primarily to hire the startup's team -- like many of Yahoo's other buyouts of late. Instead, this would be more in the vein of Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, where a distinct part of the attraction was the startup's cool factor.

The two companies already have an existing relationship. Imgur has an image-hosting service, and Yahoo became one of its clients in February. Yahoo declined to comment on the potential acquisition.