{"id":641282,"date":"2013-02-04T18:31:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T23:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=607242"},"modified":"2013-02-04T18:31:45","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T23:31:45","slug":"twitter-reportedly-acquiring-bluefin-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/641282","title":{"rendered":"Twitter reportedly acquiring Bluefin Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twitter appears to have\u00a0acquired Bluefin Labs, a social media analytics company that attempts to understand how\u00a0social media conversations and interactions\u00a0take place around television<\/a>.\u00a0The news of Twitter\u2019s acquisition was first reported by Business Insider<\/a>. Neither Twitter nor Bluefin have responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

For Twitter, working with a company like Bluefin, whose CEO JP Maheu will be speaking at PaidContent\u2019s conference in April<\/a>,\u00a0makes perfect sense. As Twitter has emphasized its ability to connect users with media and especially live television events, it has still struggled, like other companies including Facebook, to figure out how to measure the scope of those social media interactions. Do you measure success by tweets per minute? Tweets mentioning a particular show? People voting for categories or outcomes on a particular show through Twitter? It\u2019s still a question the company is figuring out, and one that Bluefin could help it answer as it works to build up monetization and partnerships in marketing and media.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0excellent\u00a0profile of Bluefin Labs ran in the Boston Globe<\/a> in November that explained how the Cambridge-based company attempts to analyze human speech patterns to understand social media activity:<\/p>\n

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A Cambridge start-up called\u00a0Bluefin Labs<\/a>\u00a0is marrying the computational power of machines with the interpretive guidance of humans to make sense of\u2009\u2014\u2009and profit from\u2009\u2014\u2009the fire hose of nonstop social media. The company\u2019s work builds on the research of its two cofounders, MIT guys who have dedicated their professional lives to teaching machines to understand human language. Now they are using that knowledge to teach machines to understand what we really mean when we tweet or post about everyone from President Obama to Honey Boo Boo. The outcome just may be as important to the president as it is to that cringe-worthy pint-size product of reality TV.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bluefin Labs was founded in 2008 and has offices in both Cambridge and New York City. The company most recently raised a $12 million Series B funding round<\/a> in January of 2012 led by\u00a0Time Warner Investments along with SoftBank Capital and repeat investors Redpoint Ventures and Lerer Ventures.<\/p>\n

Update: AllThingsD is also reporting the acquisition<\/a>, and puts the price Twitter will pay at more than $70 million.<\/p>\n

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