Twitter Said Acquiring Bluefin
Twitter will acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics firm, news reports say.
Citing unnamed sources, Business Insider on Monday afternoon reported that San Francisco-based Twitter will acquire Bluefin Labs, which was spun off of research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab by Deb Roy, who is co-founder of the company, along with Michael Fleishman and others. Both sit on Bluefin’s board of directors, along with along with Brian Bedol, a venture investor with deep television experience, ranging from MTV to the YES network, and Rachel Lam, SVP for Time Warner Investments.
If confirmed, this acquisition is yet another move in young social TV industry that is rapidly consolidating, starting with analytics provider Social Guide being acquired by Nielsen’s NM Incite in November just after Viggle had announced a deal to acquire GetGlue, a deal that has since unraveled, and Friday’s news that Dijit Media will acquire the assets of pioneering Social TV app maker Miso, retaining CEO Somrat Niyogi as an advisor.
For Twitter, which is seeking to be the business hub between television and the social media conversation as it heads to a possible IPO this year, Bluefin’s technology would provide data and revenues to augment Twitter’s position for advertisers in the Social TV marketplace.
Additionally, it might also enhance Twitter’s deal with Nielsen to create the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating for the Fall 2013 season, giving the San Francisco company access to Social Guide and Bluefin data and move closer to the holy grail of being able to accurately measure and put a defensible price on the effectiveness of television advertising in the social TV age.
This potential acquisition has no price tag on it yet. Bluefin has raised some $19M in funding in three rounds. Time Warner Investments led the last round, a Series B round in January 2012 that brought Lam to the board. Previously, Bluefin raised $6M in a Series A round in 2010, and a seed round of $1.9M in 2009.
Bluefin says its clients include 40 of the largest broadcast and cable networks in the US. The company’s flagship product is Bluefin Signals for a customer base focused on brands, agencies, and TV networks. Simply, the company has developed sophisticated technology that matches social media to television content for analysis.
Bluefin hired JP Maheu, formerly global CEO of Publicis Modem, as CEO in July 2012.
If this deal goes through, could Wiredset’s patented Trendrr analytics platform be the next domino?
