Dropbox acquires publishing platform Verst

Dropbox has acquired New York-based publishing platform Verst that helped web publishers and creators make money through features like paywalls. Notably, the acquisition only includes the Verst team, not its assets or intellectual property. Verst's service will be shutting down on December 21. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Verst started off as DWNLD, a platform that remodeled internet sites into cellular apps. It raised $12 million in Series A led by Grelock Partners before turning to Verst, which launched earlier this year as a blogging platform that has site visitors and earnings optimization equipment inbuilt.

“In short, we will be shutting down the platform on 12/21 so that we can apply everything we’ve learned towards Dropbox’s mission to simplify the way people work together," CEO AJ Frank said in a blog post.

"We’re excited to welcome the Verst team to Dropbox. Their talent in building simple, powerful publishing tools will help us create new product experiences that unleash our users’ creative energy," A Dropbox spokesperson told TechCrunch.