US cable television network CNN
announced Tuesday that it has bought Zite, a Canadian company that makes
a personalized news reader for the iPad.
CNN did not say how much it paid
for the San Francisco- and Vancouver-based Zite, which was launched in
March, but technology blog All Things Digital put the purchase price at
$20 million to $25 million.
CNN said Zite will be a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Cable News Network and will
operate as a separate, stand-alone business.
"Zite represents the next
generation of content discovery and personalized publishing, and CNN
wants to help lead in that space," CNN digital manager KC Estenson said.
"We think we can advance the
industry in a meaningful way that helps content creators expand their
businesses while growing the distribution of a product that people
already love," Estenson said in a press release.
Like other iPad news aggregators
such as Flipboard, Pulse, Taptu and AOL's Editions, Zite uses algorithms
to take a reader's interests and behavior into account in serving up
their pages.
Zite's technology can "help CNN's
websites and apps serve more personalized content, making our current
digital services even better," CNN said.
Zite chief executive Mark Johnson
said the acquisition by CNN "gives us the capital to grow Zite's
business and continue to innovate in the space."
CNN said Johnson will continue to run Zite's day-to-day operations
while Zite founder Ali Davar will remain as executive director.
Shortly after its launch, Zite was accused of copyright infringement
by The Washington Post, Dow Jones, Time Inc. and other news
organizations and told to stop displaying their articles.
Instead of directing a reader to the websites of the news
organizations, where they display online advertising, Zite had been
showing some articles reformatted in a pop-up window without ads.
After receiving the "cease-and-desist" letter, Zite began linking directly to the websites of the complaining publications
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