Twitter isn’t the only company that has expressed interest in acquiring news reading app Flipboard, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Citing multiple unnamed sources, the publication claims that several other companies, including Google and Yahoo, are also in discussions with the Palo Alto-based company about an acquisition.
While Twitter is said to have put a $1 billion dollar offer on the table to acquire the company, Google and Yahoo have not discussed a price but rather have have only discussed how Flipboard might integrate with their existing services.
The move from Google and Yahoo suggests they may not actually be interested in the company but company’s technology. Google particularly has acquired a reputation for taking deals to the alter only to back peddle at the last minute once it has learned all it can.
Today’s report confirms that Twitter’s talks with Flipboard stalled in April, though some interesting new details have emerged regarding the nature of Twitter’s interest in the company.
Twitter’s talks to acquire Flipboard were led by Anthony Noto, the company’s former investment banker CFO. Noto was at Goldman Sachs when the firm took part in Flipboard’s $50-million Series C round in December 2013, and was a significant driving force in its decision to invest in the company. Prior to even joining Twitter, Noto had advised the company to look at acquiring Flipboard.
For all parties involved in courting Flipboard the main interest has to do with the distribution of news.
Despite having only 65 million active users and slow growth, all three tech giants see the company as potentially valuable tool to use against Facebook, which, according to a recent Pew Research Center report, controls how one-third of Americans get their daily news.
With Facebook launching Instant Articles, that number is likely set to increase.
None of the three companies want to give a lucrative market away to Mark Zuckerberg and company.
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