Sysomos Acquired By Marketwire

In recent months we’ve seen several interesting moves within the social media monitoring/social CRM space.

Company Acquired by Date
Techrigy Alterian July 2009
Filtrbox Jive Software January 2010
Buzzgain Meltwater February 2010
Biz360 Attensity April 2010
DNA13 CNW Group April 2010
Scout Labs Lithium Technologies May 2010

(Note: CNW Group is a 76design client. Thanks to William Johnson for the DNA13 pointer and Steve Dodd for the Buzzgain tip.)

Now we’re seeing another significant player in a similar move, as Toronto-based Sysomos is acquired by news wire service Marketwire.

First reported by the Startup North blog, the news was later confirmed by Sysomos, although their blog comment and tweet have both since been deleted. So, while this is still – for now – a rumour, given that these confirmations were initially posted by the company (I saw the blog comment before its removal), I’m inclined to believe the reports and that a formal announcement is imminent.

Update: Sysomos has confirmed the acquisition. CEO Nick Koudas said in an email to me today:

“We are excited and we are looking forward to continue our innovation and enhance our creative product line.”

Sysomos

Sysomos offers three core services:

Sysomos has been noticeable in recent months with a series of smart awareness-driving tactics. In fact, they were featured in the New York Times just a day before this news. They’ve also made some interesting moves towards drawing a line between social media activity and business results with the introduction of their Audience product. It’ll be interesting to see whether/how Marketwire plans to factor this into its product lineup.

Implications

The recent spate of acquisitions isn’t surprising to anyone watching the space. Indeed, analysts like Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang have been commenting on the consolidation trend for a while. As Ray Wang suggests, expect to see more of this kind of activity in the coming months with other companies such as AlterianBuzzGainCymfonyRadian6Viralheat and Visible Technologies .

This particular acquisition is particularly interesting, as the acquisition is by a company on the “traditional media” side of the fence. This should help Marketwire to more effectively compete with wire services such as PR Newswire (in the US) and CNW Group (in Canada), which already feature monitoring solutions:

  • Strengthens existing monitoring services

    While PR Newswire already offers a social media monitoring service, Marketwire’s monitoring offerings are currently more limited. With social media monitoring being a common “toe in the water” for many companies as they experiment with social media, this service is becoming a must-have for traditional monitoring companies.
  • Strong analytics

    Monitoring solutions by themselves are useful, but the “clippings-style” approach to social media monitoring is really just the beginning. By acquiring a solution that allows users to do a deep dive on online conversations, Marketwire is adding a useful tool to its arsenal, and one that it doesn’t just need to white-label from other providers.
  • User-friendly interface

    Sysomos offers one of the most user-friendly web interfaces of the monitoring providers – a big bonus for less tech-savvy clients.

I’m looking forward to more information on this move soon, and to monitoring further activity in this space over coming months.

In the meantime, what do you think of this move?

Dave Fleet
Managing Director and Head of Global Digital Crisis at Edelman. Husband and dad of two. Cycling nut; bookworm; videogamer; Britnadian. Opinions are mine, not my employer's.