Parler, a platform that emerged out of the social media backlash of the Trump era, has been acquired by a brand new firm that plans to briefly shut it down. Digital media conglomerate Starboard, which just lately modified its identify from Olympic Media, announced on Friday that it has acquired Parler and plans to briefly shut it all the way down to launch a revamped model of the social community.

The monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed. Starboard anticipates that the acquisition can be accretive by the top of the second quarter of 2023.

“Parler’s massive person base and extra strategic belongings characterize an infinite alternative for Starboard to proceed to construct aggressively in our media and publishing enterprise,” mentioned Starboard CEO Ryan Coyne in a press release. “The crew at Parler has constructed an distinctive viewers and we look ahead to integrating that viewers throughout all of our present platforms.”

Based in 2018, Starboard owns conservative-leaning platforms American Wire and BizPac Evaluation. Coyne says the Arlington, Virginia-based firm believes developments in AI and the additions of recent options will enable Parler to “start servicing unsupported on-line communities.”

The announcement comes months after an acquisition settlement between Parler and Kanye West, who no goes by Ye, fell through. Parler’s proprietor and Ye had “mutually” parted methods with out closing the deal, the social community mentioned on the time.

Parler rose to reputation in 2021 across the time of the January 6 rebel, after social media firms like Twitter and Facebook banned former President Donald Trump from their platforms. A lot of his supporters flocked to Parler, which had less stringent group tips.

The social community rose to No. 1 on the App Retailer days after the rebel, however had been removed from Google Play on January 8, 2021. Amazon and Apple eliminated Parler from their platforms shortly after as properly. Parler was later reinstated on Apple and Google’s app shops after making adjustments to its moderation practices.

Final September, Parler revealed that it had restructured into Parlement Technologies and purchased a cloud firm known as Dynascale with a view to develop its imaginative and prescient past providing a social media app to supply infrastructure for companies that run the danger of getting the boot from mainstream suppliers.

Parler is considered one of many platforms, together with Gettr and Truth Social, which have cemented themselves as free-speech alternate options to fashionable social media networks. One other competitor to Parler could possibly be Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk final yr. Because the acquisition, the social media community has become more lax in its insurance policies, and has additionally reinstated Trump, although the previous president has but to tweet from the account.