Micro blogging giant Twitter is in talks to acquire newsreader service Flipboard, according to Re/Code. The transaction will be an all-stock deal, which is said to be worth more than $1 billion.
Re/Code, a tech blog, said that discussions between the two companies have been taking place since the beginning of the year. The talks have been initiated by Twitter CFO Anthony Noto. However talks between the two companies seem to be currently stalled despite a flurry of activity more recently, Re/Code reported, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.
"Still the concept behind the acquisition are intriguing on all kinds of levels. For Twitter it would bring an experienced product team - head by well know Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike McCue -to the company," the report said. Both Twitter and Flipboard have not confirmed the report.
Re/Code further mentioned that Flipboard remains an attractive acquisition target; even Google and Facebook may be interested, due to its co-founder and Chief Executive Mike McCue. McCue has previously been on Twitter's board of members but resigned to move to Flipboard.
The U.S.-based newsreader service acquired its rival Zite from CNN last year. It has also recently launched a full web app in order to increase its user base.
Flipboard was valued at about $800 million in its latest funding round, according to International Business Times. The company, which reportedly has about $50 million in annual revenue, has raised $160 million from investors including GGV Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Rizvi Traverse Management and Goldman Sachs.
In February, McCue told VentureBeat that the magazine-style news reader has 50 million monthly active readers. "Its users curate a total of 15 million individual magazines - 5 million more than a few months ago before the launch of Flipboard 3.0," he said.
