Reddit takes on Australian Alien Blue developer in acquisition deal
Summary: Reddit has acquired third-party Reddit iOS app Alien Blue, with the community news sharing site also taking on the app's Australian software developer Jason Morrissey as part of the deal.
Reddit is already putting last month's $50 million capital raising round to good use, taking on Australian developer and software engineer Jason 'Jase' Morrissey, whose popular third-party Alien Blue app has been acquired by the community news sharing site.
'We are pleased to announce that the most popular iOS client for Reddit, Alien Blue, is now an official Reddit app,' the company said in a blog post. 'We're also happy to say that its lead developer, Jase Morrissey, has joined us as our first Aussie. We have been working closely with Jase for the past several years, and are thrilled to officially welcome him to our team.'
Alien Blue will join the official Reddit AMA app in Apple's App Store, with the Alien Blue Pro upgrade offered free for a week, and its iPad app also offered for free, at least until it is integrated with the iPhone app.
'We have a few ideas for features to add in the near future, and it will only get better,' said Reddit.
Morrissey said that he expects to give his app a work-over following the acquisition, drawing upon the support of Reddit's team and resources.
'Alien Blue and I have officially joined Reddit Inc,' said Morrissey in a post today. 'I've grown pretty close to the admins over the past few years, and they've always treated me as a member of the team. Taking the next step to join them officially has been amazing, to say the least.
'As a developer by trade, you can imagine how excited I am to have Reddit's mobile UI/UX design talent and front-end engineers working alongside me. This is the crew that brought home numerous accolades for their work on the AMA application, and I'm stoked that I get to work with them on AB.
'With their help, I'm hoping to bring Alien Blue to the degree of polish and feature set that I genuinely struggled to achieve on my own. This application has so much potential, and I can't wait to see it blossom alongside the help, care, and resources of these people,' he said.
While the value of the acquisition has not been disclosed at this stage, the move comes just a couple of weeks after the company finalised a $50 million round of funding, led by Sam Altman, with Sequoia Capital's Alfred Lin, and Marc Andreesen.
Other investors who participated in its latest funding round also included PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, actor and musician Jared Leto, Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston, Eventbrite co-founders Kevin and Julia Hartz, actor Josh Kushner, and rapper Snoop Dogg.
At the time, Reddit CEO Yishan Wong said the company planned to use the money to hire more staff for product development, expand its community management team, build out better moderation and community tools, and work more closely with third-party developers to expand its mobile offering.
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