CNN has acquired Beme, a video sharing app developed by YouTuber Casey Neistat and Matt Hackett. While Neistat is a prolific vlogger, Hackett is a former president of engineering at Tumblr. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but 11 Beme team members will be absorbed by CNN as part of the collaboration.

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Beme is a social app that was launched in 2015. After receiving encouraging response in the beginning, the app faced a lull in its adoption rates. It was finally relaunched in May this year. It is believed that CNN is acquiring the app to build a brand to attract millennials.

CNN may also use the technology behind the app for its own digital products. Beme works by letting users share short videos. However, it has faced stiff competition from the likes of SnapChat and Instagram.

"The new company will be devoted to filling the world with excellent, timely, and topical video and empowering content creators to use technology to find their voice," CNN told Variety. It also claimed that the new offering would not be "news" in the regular sense of the word.

The app co-founder Neistat plans to use the app to add a new twist to traditional media news. He stated that the new generation does not see regular mass media news as invincible.

Under his new role, Neistat will act as the brand's executive producer and will help in designing the "editorial vision." Hackett, on the other hand, will be engaged in developing the core technology and integrating it with other CNN products.

Neistat had nearly five million subscribers for his YouTube vlogs, which he shut down recently. He claims that the vlogs had stopped challenging him on a creative level and that he is now looking for alternative ways for creative stimulation. It is likely that CNN expects his loyal fans to follow him to the new CNN project.