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Mozilla is buying Pocket and its more than 10 million users

The read-it-later service will continue operating as a Mozilla subsidiary.

Pocket
Pocket
Pocket

Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser, is buying Pocket, the read-it-later service, for an undisclosed amount. Pocket, which is described by Mozilla as its first strategic acquisition, will continue to operate as a Mozilla subsidiary. Founder Nate Weiner will continue to run Pocket, along with his team of about 25 people.

Pocket, previously known as Read It Later, lets users bookmark articles, videos and other content to read or view later on the web or a mobile device. It’s great for things like saving offline copies of web articles to read on plane rides or subway commutes, especially where internet access is sparse.

Pocket, which was founded in 2007, has more than 10 million monthly active users, according to a rep. That’s not bad, but suggests it’s still a fairly niche service, especially as big firms like Facebook and Apple build simple “reading list” features into their platforms.

Last August, Pinterest acquired Pocket’s long-term rival, Instapaper, also for an undisclosed sum. Pocket had raised at least $14.5 million, including a $7 million round in 2015 that included New Enterprise Associates, Ashton Kutcher’s fund and Axel Springer.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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