Professional networking site LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) confirmed on Thursday that it will be acquiring a news application-reader, Pulse, a three year old tech start up, in deal estimated at $90 million, according to AllThingsD.
The Company said that it will finance the 10% of the $90 million deal by using cash and 90% by stock.
In order to keep users hooked to its site, LinkedIn in the recent past has focused more on the content side of its business. For instance, in the past, many people simply upload their CVs and never turned back to the site. However, thanks to innovative features such as news aggregation hub (launched in early 2011) and latest roll-out, LinkedIn Influencers, which carries regular blogs from renowned business leaders such as Sir Richard Branson and Jack Welch., the networking giant’s regular users’ base has increased sharply. Quantitatively, LinkedIn has increased its content by more than two times in the recent past.
Pulse, which was co-founded by two Stanford Graduates back in 2010, currently have over 20 million users who can browse more than 10 million global news stories, on daily basis.
Pulse app, which is compatible with android operating system, Apple’s Iphones, Ipad and available in Web is competing with other similar services such as Summly, Flipboard, Circa and Zite (Zite was bought by CNN in 2012 in deal estimated at about $20 million).
Although, it is still not clear how LinkedIn would integrate Pulse, but Pulse in its blog wrote that its app will remain unchanged for the time being.
“We’re still working together on the product you love, and will continue to provide an innovative and visual news reading experience. For now, the Pulse apps will remain the same, and our two teams are excited to work together to create cool and useful new offerings,” said Pulse Co-founders in their Company’s blog.
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