Apple Pays $30M to Shut Down Swell App

Apple has acquired and shut down Swell, a mobile app that personalizes audio news feeds, according to reports.

Apple bought Swell's parent, startup Concept.io for $30 million and will shutter the app, the Wall Street Journal reported based on an unnamed source. Swell is considered to be similar to Pandora in that users can choose to listen to the new content or skip it. Concept.io was valued at $19 million last year and raised $5.4 million in funds.

Concept.io was "incubated" at Charles River Ventures, the WSJ reported, and its chief executive and founder Ram Ramkumar was an "entrepreneur in residence." Other investors include Google Ventures, Draper Nexus Ventures and InterWest Partners.
 
So why does Apple want Concept.io and why kill Swell? Apparently the acquisition may be to gain Concept.io's intellectual property and let Apple create a better streaming app for content.
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