Seeing how the world of media is continuously evolving, giving readers and viewers up-to-the-minute news from wherever they are, one of the most efficient ways of getting it is from the popular app Flipboard—and it’s about to get even better. That’s because the phone and tablet magazine app has just acquired one of its main competitors in a gigantic deal, purchasing Zite from CNN for “a deal that could exceed $60 million,” according to the CNN report.
In the hopes of overtaking online media, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue has just positioned his company to become the major player in developing both new concepts and customized content for Flipboard users, as the deal also includes the long-term advertising partnership between both Flipboard and CNN Digital, with access to CNN’s plethora of news anchors.
Flipboard has distinguished itself as the most premier news app that gathers and aggregates articles from various news sites and social networks, and the new deal only solidifies its power, also bringing along the 20-plus employees that Zite had on staff in its headquarters.
As previously mentioned, one of the more unique characteristics of the deal includes the options that Flipboard will now have with CNN personalities and anchors, as talent such as Fareed Zakaria, Jake Tapper and John King will now launch digital mags for the company, adding about 30 topic-oriented feeds from CNN to its app.
Naturally, the acquisition as also pushed Flipboard into a new vertical as far as value is concerned, only strengthening the faith investors like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer, The Chernin Group, Ashton Kutcher and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has in the four-year-old company’s long-term growth, proving that the $161 million raised is being put to good use the push to continue to increase revenue through mobile ads and typical advertisements seen from print magazines.
We all enjoy our news, and this will help in continuing to get it to us every second of the day—with its own creative spin.
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