On Tuesday, Market research firm Ipsos announced that it is acquiring social listening platform Synthesio. This is the latest in a series of industry-wide mergers and acquisitions of social platforms. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Synthesio’s platform allows brands to monitor what is being posted about them and competitors in social media, and to discern trends.
Synthesio CMO Chris Vitti said in an interview that his company, as a technology firm, complements Ipsos, which has primarily been a professional services firm delivering research about markets and customer opinions. He noted that Ipsos has been employing Synthesio technology, among others, while Synthesio’s small professional services practice for 1analyzing its social listening data can now become a larger offering. This will better position Synthesio to differentiate itself with account management and human added-value, Vitti said, with a continued orientation around social media intelligence. Some other social platforms like Sprinklr, he said, are moving to become full engagement suites oriented around social media, while others — like NetBase — are getting into business intelligence. Synthesio will become known as “an Ipsos company,” and will maintain its central office in New York City, as well as four branch offices in other cities around the world.
Loic Moisand, CEO and co-founder of Synthesio, and the current Synthesio leadership team will continue at the company. Moisand said: “We are very excited to join the Ipsos family. Our focus on innovative technology, coupled with Ipsos’ decades of market research and consulting experience, will give our joint customers a single path for building and advancing their social intelligence programs.”
Didier Truchot, Ipsos chairman and CEO added: “The acquisition of Synthesio is part of the Total Understanding Project and its targeted objectives. It will reinforce Ipsos’ technologies and know-how in social listening and the monitoring of the data that comes with it. We are happy to welcome Synthesio’s leadership team on board.“
