Mozilla Acquires Pocket, Says the Read-It-Later Service Will Operate Independently

Mozilla has announced that the company has successfully completed the acquisition of Pocket (Read It Later, Inc.). Mozilla said that this is its first strategic acquisition, and with buyout it aims to provide users with powerful tools to discover high quality web content on their terms and independent of the platform. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later), is a popular app that allows users to save articles to read them later as per their convenience. The content is saved without the ads and in easy-to-read form. Notably, Mozilla in 2015 integrated the Pocket service into its Firefox browser.

With the acquisition, Pocket is now a independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of Mozilla and brings "a successful human-powered content recommendation system" along with its 10 million unique active users across Android, iOS, and Web, Mozilla said in its release, adding that till date 3 billion pieces of content had been saved by the service . Notably, Pocket has now become part of Mozilla Open Source Project.

"We believe that the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content is key to keeping the internet healthy by fighting against the rising tide of centralization and walled gardens. Pocket provides people with the tools they need to engage with and share content on their own terms, independent of hardware platform or content silo, for a safer, more empowered and independent online experience," Chris Beard, Mozilla's CEO, was quoted as saying in company's blog post.

Pocket is currently available on platforms including Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, iOS, Android, and Windows.

As we mentioned, the read-it-later service will continue to operate independently, with the entire team behind Pocket remaining the same and continuing to work in its existing office. Pocket CEO Nate has claimed that Pocket's existing roadmap has been reinforced and is "clearer than ever." He added that a "few major updates" can be expected from Pocket in the coming months.

Detailing Mozilla's role in the company going forward, Nate said, "They're adding fuel to our rocketship. We have worked closely with Mozilla as we partnered with their Firefox team, and established a deep trust with their team and vision. They have extraordinary resources, global scale, and reach to put Pocket in more places, and help us build an even better product, faster.