As rumors ran rampant just the day before, Sysomos heightened the mystery by refusing to make any comment. It has now been revealed that the rumors are true – Sysomos has been acquired by Marketwire for an estimated $35 million.
Statements were made forthwith by representatives of both companies.
Michael Nowlan, president and CEO of Marketwire said of the deal, “This is a critical step in our integrated communication solution strategy. To date we have been a leader in providing our clients with ways to reach out to their key audiences by innovating the publishing and distribution of news releases. The rapid changes in communications as a result of social media now make it imperative to immediately understand the impact of outbound messaging: what happens to it, what’s the reaction to it, and how is it used to evaluate and strategize future messages?”
President and co-founder of Sysomos stated, Nick Koudas’ statement hints that the deal couldn’t have been better. “There is a natural fit and synergy between Marketwire and Sysomos. Our common goal is a customer-centric approach in applying technology to meet the challenges of communicating in an ever-evolving environment,” Koudas said.
Sysomos like a few other players such as Radian6 or Reputationobserver has been a pioneer in the social media monitoring business. The company began as a research project led by professor Koudas at the University of Toronto, beginning in 2005. It was officially incorporated two years later. Sysomos has made a business of monitoring all public communications and conversations across the most popular social media sites in order to analyze the status and reputation of a brand amongst the brand’s customers in an uncensored forum.
Marketwire is a press services company, working to distribute new press releases. They plan to use Sysomos technology in order to expand their business into the increasingly important social media services. This way, they can measure brand reputations and popularity with the masses in order to more specifically define the best ways to implement social media messaging alongside its usual wire services.
With the viral quality that word-of-mouth provided through social networking, news distribution can be more narrowly targeted and matched with those who would be interested in seeking more information through other forms of media. This trend is not new, as bloggers have already been recognized as important sources of spreading information quickly and efficiently.
