The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Pinterest has confirmed that it has also bought out the majority stake seed-stage VC firm Betaworks has held in Instapaper since 2013, and now owns the entire company.
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Pinterest said Instapaper would continue operating as a separate app, a departure from the fate of its other acquisitions, which are usually shut down after the purchase is completed.
Pinterest Inc. said Tuesday that it had acquired article-bookmarking app Instapaper.
Founded in 2008 as a premium subscription service, Instapaper is best known for its iOS and Android apps, which save articles for offline reading and remove the clutter and formatting from their original web pages. The majority of the Instapaper team is relocating to San Francisco from NY, including CEO Brian Donohue and community manager Rodion Gusev. Apple’s Safari Reading List feature built the article queue feature into the native browser on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and Pocket has always been a competitor, but I still use Instapaper to save and organize long form articles like an archive. Originally, its apps were paid.
Pinterest said it would leverage Instapaper’s expertise in recommending articles based on user behavior. Steve Davis, lead product manager in Pinterest, said in a statement: “As the world’s catalog of ideas, we’re focused on making it easy to save and discover content on any device”.
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Instapaper provides a compelling source for news-based content, and we’re excited to take those learnings to Pinterest’s discovery products. The acquisition of Instapaper suggests the company believes there is more to be done there – although it’s not certain how valuable that will be for Pinterest. “The Pinterest team is working on unique technical challenges, and their collective skill will add tremendous value to Instapaper”.
