Flipboard announced today that it plans on buying the rival news app, Zite, from CNN. The purchase could mean a content partnership with the news network, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Currently, neither Flipboard nor CNN will say anything about the price of the deal-or any other terms. An earlier rumor stated that $60 million was on the table, though later reports deemed the figure to be inaccurate, according to Tech Crunch.
The deal includes all of Zite's 14 employees, except for CEO Mark Johnson, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal. It's expected that Zite's algorithm-driven content curation will be combined into Flipboard's product over the next few months, according to Fortune.
"The tech that powers all of the discovery in Zite will be integrated into Flipboard in the coming weeks and months. People will notice a significant increase in discovery on Flipboard as we roll this out," said Flipboard CEO Mike McCue in an interview with Tech Crunch. "Zite has the ability to teach itself what you like as you use it and we are integrating that capability as well. This is important because as we add thousands of new content publishers they will create content of different kinds. We will enable that content to be more readily discoverable by curators."
Currently, the details of the new deal have yet to be released. When CNN first purchased Zite, it was valued at $20 million, but its worth has only increased since then, according to Fortune. While details remain scarce, it's likely that users will see big changes in the future as the technology is incorporated over the next few months.
