Parler has a new owner. Reuters reported that digital media conglomerate Starboard announced it was acquiring the social network and temporarily shutting down the platform as of this Friday so that the new owners can revamp it.
The purchase comes after rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, attempted to buy the social network, similar to Twitter, at the end of 2022. However, the sale was never finalized and finally, the app was sold to the conglomerate for an undisclosed amount of money.
The Starboard conglomerate, formerly known as Olympic Media, was founded in 2018. This media group is known for owning several conservative-leaning platforms such as American Wire and BizPac Review.
Parler is the "world's pioneering uncancelable free speech platform"
The company said in a press release that now that it has added Parler to its ranks, it will aim to become a platform for "unsupported online communities" and be the home where they can come together "away from the ad-hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them."
Starboard (Formerly, Olympic Media) announced today that it has concluded the acquisition of Parler, the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform. No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business anymore. By refocusing on the cloud and IT infrastructure space George Farmer has done an exceptional job at successfully leading Parlement into a critically important industry where it has already begun to excel. Starboard is the perfect home for the Parler brand and its longtime loyal users.
According to Starboard CEO Ryan Coyne, this goal is now more attainable thanks to the acquisition of Parler:
Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business. The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms
