LinkedIn (News - Alert), the largest professional network on the Internet, weighing in at more than 200 million members worldwide, has announced that it will acquire Pulse, a news reader app and mobile content distribution platform.
Pulse (News - Alert), a San Francisco-based company which is owned by Alphonso Labs, Inc. is rumored to be bought by LinkedIn for anywhere from $50 to $100 million, with sources quoting $90 million as the likely price.
Pulse was founded in 2010 by Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta while they were still students at Stanford University. It has since become a go-to platform for content consumption on the Internet, and now claims more than 30 million users who have activated its iOS and Android (News - Alert)-based news reader apps in more than 190 countries and in nine languages. Forty percent of Pulse's users reside outside the U.S. More than 750 publishers distribute their content through Pulse.
Top investors in Pulse include Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Mayfield Fund, Lightspeed Investment Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Lerer Ventures.
Deep Nishar, SVP of Products and User Experience at LinkedIn, praised Pulse's “considerable talent, technology, and products,” adding that LinkedIn was “thrilled” to bring the firm aboard the company's growing content offerings.
“We believe that they will help us accelerate our ability to deliver to our members the insights they need to be better at what they do, on any device," Nishar said.
The motive behind the acquisition is clear – LinkedIn is looking to become the “definitive professional publishing platform,” says Nishar, who adds that “Pulse is a perfect complement to this vision.”
The acquisition is expected to be finalized during the second quarter of 2013. Members of the Pulse staff will move to LinkedIn at the company's Mountain View, CA (News - Alert), headquarters. The company's existing line of apps will remain.