LinkedIn has officially announced that it will acquire the popular mobile newsreader Pulse in a deal worth $90 million, following rumors that began circulating back in March. The company is hoping that the move will help it become the “definitive professional publishing platform,” expanding its business beyond the professional network it already provides.

Pulse has become one of the most popular newsreaders on mobile, with more than 30 million users reading more than 10 million stories a day. The service allows users to pick their favorite news sources and topics and then aggregates all of the stories they may be interested in.

LinkedIn plans to use Pulse to push original and partner content to its users in an effort to keep them engaged and returning on a regular basis.

“We believe LinkedIn can be the definitive professional publishing platform — where all professionals come to consume content and where publishers come to share their content,” LinkedIn SVP of product and user experience Deep Nishar said in a company blog post. “Pulse is a perfect complement to this vision.”

LinkedIn already offers a news aggregation service called LinkedIn Today, which regularly delivers fresh stories to LinkedIn users. It also launched its “Influencer” program in 2012, which sees important figures in business, entertainment, and politics writing original pieces for LinkedIn users.

• SourceAllThingsD