CNN has sold personalized news aggregator Zite to Flipboard for $60 million, CNN Money reports. Flipboard will also offer custom magazines for some CNN shows as part of the deal.
Zite — whose algorithm always manages to surface customized content that I don’t come across anywhere else — was previously acquired by CNN in 2011. In December, AllThingsD reported that a new round of funding valued Flipboard — with its 100 million active users — at $800 million.
The consolidation by two of the largest news readers comes as major players like Google, Facebook and Yahoo have moved to compete in the space.
Recent moves include:
- In November, Google launched Google Play Newsstand, a default app for Android devices that allows publishers to provide content behind a paywall. (Since 2012, New York Times subscribers have been able to access content through the Flipboard app.)
- In January, Yahoo released Yahoo News Digest, which provides twice-daily, one-size-fits-all roundups of the day’s biggest stories.
- In February, Facebook debuted Paper, which aggregates top shared stories across a number of categories.
