Twitter Is Buying Personal Magazine App 'Flipboard' For More Than $1 Billion

Twitter seems to be expanding its wings from the world of micro-blogging and messaging into the realm of personal magazine and article sharing as it is reportedly in negotiation to acquire Flipboard Inc.

According to multiple sources, the social network has been engaged in an ongoing series of talks to acquire the magazine-style newsreader Flipboard in an all-stock deal which has a value of over $1 billion. The discussions, reportedly spearheaded by Twitter chief executive Anthony Noto, have been occurring since the beginning of the year.

The rumored acquisition is suppossedly triggered by the pressure of user growth and product innovation Twitter has faced from Wall Street. But despite this, negotiation between the the two companies seems to be facing delays.

By acquiring Flipboard, Twitter might help the mobile magazine application take advantage of advertisements from some major brands and the social network's entire user base.

Flipboard was first launched five years ago with a more than $160 million of funding from backers like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, and Rizvi Traverse Management. If the acquisition pushes through, Flipboard's 100 million users will definitely be added to Twitter's user base helping the network cope with the pressure of getting more people to use its platform.  

Earlier this year, the magazine application advanced its monetization strategy through releasing promoted items which is believed to have enabled brands in publishing their own content into Flipboard magazines. It has also recently bought its competitor, Zite, which was valued at around $60 milliion. The advertising power Flipboard has is another thing which Twitter might be also interested in.

Other than that, Twitter might also be doing the purchase to get Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue back on board. McCue used to be a Twitter board member back in 2010 but left the company in 2012 when the competition between the two began growing.

Both Twitter and Flipboard refused to comment about the speculations.