Flipboard buys news reader app Zite for $60 million

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Flipboard has announced this morning that it has acquired popular news reader app Zite from CNN. The company didn’t disclose pricing details, but word has it that it went for $60 million and part of the deal is that Flipboard will begin syndicating CNN content inside its apps.

For those unfamiliar with the app, it’s billed as an ‘intelligent magazine’ that helps you discover interesting things to read. Almost like a Pandora for RSS feeds, Zite analyzes millions of articles each day to offer you content on over 40K topics based on your habits and preferences…

From Flipboard’s announcement:

“Today we’re thrilled to welcome the Zite team to Flipboard and to announce our partnership with CNN. As a news-loving entrepreneur, I’ve long admired the work of both of these companies: Zite has always amazed me with its ability to give readers great content centered around specific topics—tens of thousands of them—and CNN has long been a pioneering force for 24/7 news coverage around the world.

We acquired Zite from CNN to address something we’ve heard from a lot of you: although you can already read thousands of sources from over 20 regions on Flipboard, you want easier and better ways to discover content about the things that matter to you. Adding Zite’s expertise in personalization and recommendations to Flipboard’s product experience and powerful curator community will create an unparalleled personal magazine for our millions of readers.

While the Zite and Flipboard teams integrate and dive into this work together, Zite users should know that they can continue to use the existing Zite app and will soon be able to enjoy a great Zite experience on Flipboard. We’ll be sure to share more details as they’re available. I am so excited for what lies ahead.”

Unfortunately, by the sound of that last paragraph, Flipboard doesn’t plan to offer any future support or updates for Zite. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if the app was shuttered sometime in the near future. Flipboard also announced today that it will soon debut new full-page brand ads.

Zite was founded in 2011, and was purchased by CNN that same year for around $25 million. Flipboard, for its part, has raised over $160 million to date and was last valued at just under $1 billion. It’s home to over 100 million users, and generates around 2.5 billion page views per month.