The professional networking site LinkedIn acquired Pulse, a news reader and mobile content distribution platform owned by Alphonso Labs. The announcement comes at a time when users of Google Reader, which is being shut down this summer, are looking for an alternative application.
The transaction is valued at approximately $90 million, subject to adjustment, in a combination of approximately 90% stock and approximately 10% cash. The acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013.
“We are thrilled to be able to add Pulse’s considerable talent, technology, and products to our growing ecosystem of content offerings, and 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,” said Deep Nishar, SVP of Products and User Experience for LinkedIn. “To continue to deliver that value to our members, our vision for content is that LinkedIn will be the definitive professional publishing platform, and Pulse is a perfect complement to this vision.”
Following closing, members of the Pulse team, including those from engineering, product and design, will join LinkedIn at the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. The existing Pulse apps will continue to be supported as the integrated Pulse and LinkedIn teams work to build future generations of professional content consumption products.
