Twitter to buy Flipboard for more than $1 billion in stock?

Tonight, rumors are circulating that magazine-style newsreader Flipboard has been in talks to be bought by Twitter in an all-stock deal valued at over $1 billion. Flipboard says that it has 100 million activated users (which does not mean that all of them are currently using the service) while others say that the bloom is off the rose and growth has slowed. While it might seem that there isn't much about Flipboard that fits with Twitter, the latter could use Flipboard's news collection technology to give its members a varied selection of headlines for their timelines.

One area where Twitter can improve Flipboard is with advertising. Flipboard has just started down the path to monetization and Twitter has more experience in this area. According to reports, Flipboard has received $160 million in funding from venture capitalists with the latest round done at a valuation of $800 million. The company is said to have garnered $50 million in revenue last year.

Twitter, which has 302 million users, could be making the purchase in order to get Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue back on board. McCue was a Twitter board member from 2010 to 2012, but resigned when competition between the two apps started growing. Sources are saying that talks between Twitter and Flipboard have cooled off for the time being.

Flipboard originally launched for the Apple iPad and on Pearl Harbor Day in 2011, the app became available for the iPhone. Flipboard is now also available for Android and Windows Phone users.

Download  Flipboard on your handset: (iOS|Android|WindowsPhone)

source: re/code via SlashGear