Conglomerate Starboard buys Parler, to shut down social media app temporarily

FILE PHOTO: Logos of social media app Parler are seen in this Illustration taken, October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) -Digital media conglomerate Starboard said on Friday it has bought Parler for an undisclosed sum and will temporarily shut down the social media app popular with U.S. conservatives to give itself time to roll out a revamped version of the platform.

The move comes months after the collapse of a deal that would have seen American rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, buy the platform's parent company Parlement Technologies.