LinkedIn May Be Doubling Down On The Media Business By Buying Pulse, A News Reader
Gannes's colleague Kara Swisher had reported that a deal was likely earlier on Monday.
"We don't comment on rumors or speculation," a LinkedIn spokesperson told us.
Pulse maker Alphonso Labs had previously raised $10 million from Greycroft Partners, Lerer Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, New Enterprise Associates, and Redpoint Ventures.
There are a host of news-reading apps on the market, which typically take news stories shared on social networks or selected by editors and reformat them for smartphones and tablets. Flipboard, backed by Kleiner Perkins, is one of the most notable. CNN acquired Zite, another contender, in 2011.
Peter Kafka, also of AllThingsD, points out that LinkedIn editorial director Dan Roth had worked on a rudimentary news-reading app at Fortune, based on that magazine's well-known Fortune 500 list.
LinkedIn already offers a selection of news articles from a variety of sources in its LinkedIn Today section, which appears on both its website and mobile apps.
It has also gotten into the business of publishing original content contributed by prominent business thinkers like Virgin founder Richard Branson and HP CEO Meg Whitman.
Featuring more content on the site may help LinkedIn grow its advertising business. But timely business news—for example, about a large Internet company buying a startup—may prompt salespeople, recruiters, and other LinkedIn members to reach out to customers or prospects using the network.