Pulse, The Social News Reading App, Acquired By LinkedIn

Rumor has it that social news reading app, Pulse is about to be acquired by a major platform company.  The news comes from Kara Swisher at All Things D, who says that she’s potentially narrowed down the list of potential acquirers to Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Gannett, and Amazon, with both Microsoft and Yahoo apparently having the most interest in the app.

According to Pulse, the app has 20 million users who read more than 10 million stories every day.  We reported late last year, that Yahoo has been especially interested in acquiring mobile companies, in an effort to bolster its technology offerings and help distribute its content.  To date, Pulse has raised $10 million in venture capital and is among the growing list of companies in the content aggregation market, including Flipboard, Summly, Google Currents, and Aol Editions.

Pulse also recently released a web based version of its app to supplement its iOS and Android app.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Update: We’re now hearing that it could be LinkedIn that acquires Pulse and that the deal could be announced sometime this week.

Update 2: All Things D has confirmed that LinkedIn has acquired Pulse, with a price tag between $50 million and $100 million.

(Via All Things D.)