Tech

Flipboard Buys Zite Reader From CNN In Rumored $60M Deal

Flipboard has purchased social news site Zite from CNN. The two will create a series of mutually beneficial CNN news feeds for display on Flipboard.

Flipboard Buys Zite Reader From CNN In Rumored $60M Deal
Flipboard
SMS

Here's one for your news feed — Flipboard has purchased social magazine app Zite from CNN.

Flipboard plans to integrate Zite's recommendation software into its own product, to create more personalized digital news magazines for its audience.

Neither party is disclosing terms, but the tech press is kicking around a price tag that could eventually reach $60 million.

But some, like Peter Kafka at Re/code, don't buy it. CNN only paid $20m for Zite three years ago.

"I would be very surprised if Flipboard, which has raised $160 million to date, spent $60 million in cash for Zite."

That said, Flipboard has weathered a sea of other reader applications, like Google Currents, AOL Editions and Facebook's paper. Zite and its recommendation engine competed in this market, too. (Via The Wall Street Journal)

And it will get quite the content shot in the arm with this deal.

ReadWrite reports CNN plans to effectively distribute its entire service through Flipboard — it will create 30 new feeds and build out news magazines for all of its shows.

The way one writer for TechCrunch sees it,  CNN wasn't able to do that itself. This deal is "a signal of how CNN has fallen into the same trap as other, older media companies of being unable to develop new media services effectively."

But The Next Web says "Symbiotic is certainly the key phrase here – CNN gets a massive boost on mobile, while Flipboard gets a ton of content in return."

The Flipboard team says it will share more details of the deal — and a timeline for integrating Zite’s services — as they become available.