LinkedIn finds a Pulse, buys news reader for $50 to $100 million?

Screenshots from the Pulse app

According to a source familiar with the situation, business networking app LinkedIn will purchase newsreader app Pulse for a price somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. Pulse launched in 2010 and is owned by Alphonso Labs, based in San Francisco. The app has 20 million viewers that read more than 10 million stories daily. Earlier reports had Microsoft and Yahoo both trying to steal Pulse away.

LinkedIn has been trying to increase the mobile advertising it displays. Last quarter, the "marketing solutions group," which includes traditional advertising, accounted for 27% of LinkedIn's revenue. Pulse's app competes with Flipboard, Google Currents and some other lesser known names in the battle for eyeballs. One competitor, Zite, was purchased by CNN in 2011 for $20 million.

Pulse has added some new features that allow its users to share with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Flickr, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr right from Pulse. LinkedIn has also been adding features to its service including customized news feeds for users, which would seem to fit perfectly with Pulse.

source: AllThingsD