Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that BreakingNews.com was opperated by the same people who started the @breakingnews Twitter account.
MSNBC announced this morning that it is buying the BreakingNews.com URL from a company called PV Media Group. This follows November’s purchase of @breakingnews and its 1.4 million followers. The two companies were not connected before MSNBC’s acquisitions of their various projects.
When we profiled @breakingnews founder Michael van Poppel in July, the company was just about to release its iPhone app and had over 800,000 followers on Twitter. That number is now over 1.5 million.
“Not everyone wants news surrounded by commentary or features,” said Charlie Tillinghast, president of the MSNBC Digital Network in the company’s press release about today’s purchase.
MSNBC Spokesperson Gina Stikes told us in an email that “Msnbc has acquired the URL only.” She did not disclose any further details, such as the purchase price.
For more background about BreakingNews.com, see today’s coverage at DomainNameWire.
