> Do "corporate VC" people have the mindset of a VC in that they're aware that most investments will fail and that's ok as long as a few "moonshots" go really well?

In my experience, the VCs themselves do. Their bosses say they do (hence why the corporation started a VC arm). But after a few failures, that tends to change. (Analog: why many corporate cultures try and fail at emulating Skunkworks.)

> Was Yahoo! buying tumblr an example of corporate VC? How about Facebook buying Instagram?

No, that’s M&A. Generally when one says Company A bought Company B, that’s corporate finance.

GM investing in Lyft is corporate VC. Tyson investing in Beyond Meat is corporate VC. Minority stakes, early-stage companies and a strategic motive describes corporate VC.

In my fund we do, even our CEO reminds us that it’s ok some of our bets will fail, but the rest of the organization is a bit less in tune and thinks we just are a new stage to the M&A process