Twitter in talks to buy Flipboard

Social networking giant Twitter is in talks to buy article-sharing app Flipboard, the media reported.

Twitter could pay more than $1 billion in stocks to make the acquisition, VentureBeat reported.

California-based Flipboard was launched in 2010 and the company has raised more than $160 million with backing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Insight Venture Partners and Rizvi Traverse Management.

Integration of Twitter and Flipboard apps as a result of an acquisition could help Flipboard take advantage of advertisements from some major brands. Flipboard could become larger by expanding to Twitter's entire user base.

In January, Flipboard advanced its monetization strategy by launching Promoted Items, enabling brands to push their own content into Flipboard magazines.

In February, when Flipboard launched a full web app, Mike McCue, the company's chief executive, told VentureBeat that Flipboard has 50 million monthly active readers.