It’s official. Twitter has acquired internet advertising startup AdGrok, founder Matthew McEachen wrote in a blog post yesterday.

AdGrok’s advertising platform simplifies the process of running internet marketing campaigns for small businesses that aren’t very familiar with the web. And while those campaigns focus on Google Adwords, the new focus will be on developing Twitter’s “monetization platform”.

“When Twitter approached us and asked if we’d be interested in working on their monetization platform, we realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we just couldn’t pass up,” McEachen said.

At this point its unknown what shape that platform will take, but its a good bet that it will have many of the same features and statistics found in AdGrok’d “GrokBar”, except tailored to promoted and featured tweets.

As mentioned in a previous report, the purchase of AdGrok may signal that Twitter is ready to start formulating what kind of data is relevant to performance rather than rely on third-party services to do it. One thing that is very certain is that Twitter is looking to create a much more involved advertising platform for clients wishing to promote their messages through Twitter.

Effective immediately AdGrok is closing the service to new customers and will stop charging all current clients. The service will officially be taken offline June 30, and its existing databases will be deleted. Although the company does note that all past performance data and such will still be available to view through Google Analytics.

Twitter purchased the Y Combinator-backed startup for less than $10 million, according to rumors covered by TechCrunch.

Tags: acquisition

Companies: AdGrok, Twitter

People: Matthew McEachen

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Twitter may be in talks to acquire contextual keyword bidding platform AdGrok for less than $10 million, according to a TechCrunch report.

While AdGrok aims to simplify search engine marketing campaigns, the platform could be adapted and used by Twitter to help monetize promoted and trending tweets.

Purchasing AdGrok could alleviate some of the criticism many have had toward Twitter, which lags far behind the competition in developing a clear advertising strategy for the site.

However, buying AdGrok could also signal that Twitter is ready to start providing statistics and relevant data to its users, which has traditionally been handled by third-party services like Hoot Suit, bit.ly and several others. The company has already started to distance itself from third-party services by apparently developing its own photo sharing feature and improving notification support — so, adding its own statistics wouldn’t be a complete surprise.

The deal has yet to be confirmed by either company, but TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis points out that the last person Twitter corporate development executive Jessica Verrilli followed on Twitter was AdGrok co-founder Argyris Zymnis.

Tags: acquisitions, advertising

Companies: AdGrok, Twitter

People: Argyris Zymnis, Jessica Verrilli

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Twitter has finalized its acquisition of immensely popular third-party client TweetDeck, according to a report by CNN Money. The report says the deal is worth more than $40 million in a mix of a cash and stock.

A few weeks ago, TechCrunch reported the first tidbits of the deal. TechCrunch initially cited a $40 million to $50 million range for the purchase, and if the CNN report holds up, TC’s first report will prove accurate.

Just last month UberMedia was supposedly in the process of buying Tweetdeck and had a 30-day exclusive to buy. But negotiations took too long, and that gave Twitter time to propose a better offer.

Tweetdeck is one of the most popular third-party client for Twitter users, with versions available for desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android. It can display real-time tweets, direct messages, Facebook feeds, and more, all from the same interface.

Twitter says it wants to better control the user experience, and control of TweetDeck will certainly make that possible. Before this, Twitter bought iPhone client Tweetie and partnered directly with with photo-hoster TwitPic. The company is also encouraging external developers to focus on something other than straightforward Twitter clients.

The only downside to Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck will be the loss of an innovative, popular client pushing Twitter to add new features and come up with better ideas. On the upside, having Twitter and Tweetdeck on the same team could mean better and faster integration between service and client.

Companies: TweetDeck, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Twitter has finalized its acquisition of immensely popular third-party client TweetDeck, according to a report by CNN Money. The report says the deal is worth more than $40 million in a mix of a cash and stock.

A few weeks ago, TechCrunch reported the first tidbits of the deal. TechCrunch initially cited a $40 million to $50 million range for the purchase, and if the CNN report holds up, TC’s first report will prove accurate.

Just last month UberMedia was supposedly in the process of buying Tweetdeck and had a 30-day exclusive to buy. But negotiations took too long, and that gave Twitter time to propose a better offer.

Tweetdeck is one of the most popular third-party client for Twitter users, with versions available for desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android. It can display real-time tweets, direct messages, Facebook feeds, and more, all from the same interface.

Twitter says it wants to better control the user experience, and control of TweetDeck will certainly make that possible. Before this, Twitter bought iPhone client Tweetie and partnered directly with with photo-hoster TwitPic. The company is also encouraging external developers to focus on something other than straightforward Twitter clients.

The only downside to Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck will be the loss of an innovative, popular client pushing Twitter to add new features and come up with better ideas. On the upside, having Twitter and Tweetdeck on the same team could mean better and faster integration between service and client.

Companies: TweetDeck, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Twitter has finalized its acquisition of immensely popular third-party client TweetDeck, according to a report by CNN Money. The report says the deal is worth more than $40 million in a mix of a cash and stock.

A few weeks ago, TechCrunch reported the first tidbits of the deal. TechCrunch initially cited a $40 million to $50 million range for the purchase, and if the CNN report holds up, TC’s first report will prove accurate.

Just last month UberMedia was supposedly in the process of buying Tweetdeck and had a 30-day exclusive to buy. But negotiations took too long, and that gave Twitter time to propose a better offer.

Tweetdeck is one of the most popular third-party client for Twitter users, with versions available for desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android. It can display real-time tweets, direct messages, Facebook feeds, and more, all from the same interface.

Twitter says it wants to better control the user experience, and control of TweetDeck will certainly make that possible. Before this, Twitter bought iPhone client Tweetie and partnered directly with with photo-hoster TwitPic. The company is also encouraging external developers to focus on something other than straightforward Twitter clients.

The only downside to Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck will be the loss of an innovative, popular client pushing Twitter to add new features and come up with better ideas. On the upside, having Twitter and Tweetdeck on the same team could mean better and faster integration between service and client.

Companies: TweetDeck, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

He took to Twitter last night to say as much.

[via TSF]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

And:

[Twitter.com/JimCramer via NYO]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Today’s funding announcements include online services for songs, classifieds and Twitter management:

musiXmatch raises $3.7M for online song database: The developer of a digital lyrics API has raised a first round of funding led by Italian investor Francesco Micheli Associati to expand its lyrics service to application developers and music services. Based in Bologna, Italy, the 9-employee startup has more than 5.3M officially licensed lyrics and is available in more than 18 languages.

Quikr brings in $8M for local online classifieds: Quikr Mauritius, a holding company of Quikr India, has raised a new round of funding led by Nokia Growth Partners for its web and mobile free classifieds service. The Mumbai, India-based web site, which enables users to buy, sell, rent or find objects, events and services, is available in more than 40 cities in India and has more than 10M consumers each month.

MediaRoost gets $500K to help businesses manage Twitter: The Metuchen, New Jersey-based company has raised a round of seed funding for its enterprise Twitter management tool, called TweetRoost. The service, co-founded by business partners of more than 30 years, launched in April and helps organizations monitor and analyze their social media presence.

U-Systems raises $6.5M for breast ultrasound tech: The developer of breast imaging technology has raised a new round of funding from investors including iD SoftCapital Group, Lumira Capital, PIIH, Radius Ventures and Sycamore Ventures. Founded in 1997, the company is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. and is developing an automated breast ultrasound system.

Companies: iD SoftCapital Group, Lumira Capital, MediaRoost, musiXmatch, Nokia Growth Partners, PIIH, Quikr, Radius Ventures, Sycamore Ventures, U Systems

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Today’s funding announcements include chargeable spectacles, Twitter optimization tools and robotic balls:

PixelOptics raises $45M for electronic lenses: The Roanoke, Va.-based company has raised $35M in equity and $10M in debt funding from Safeguard Scientifics and others to develop eyeglasses. The company’s core product, called emPower, has dynamically focusing lenses, allowing the user to turn a reading functionality on when close-up vision is needed.

SocialFlow brings in $7M to determine the best time to tweet: The social media optimization service has raised a first round of funding led by Softbank. A betaworks company, the New York-based startup helps media companies, brands and retailers determine the best topic and time for engaging users on Twitter. The company, which launched in June, has also announced a partnership with Twitter, allowing SocialFlow to incorporate Twitter’s data into its analytics.

Orbotix gets $5M for robotic toy: The maker of Sphero, a robotic ball developed for entertainment, has raised a second round of funding from the Foundry Group and Highway 12 Ventures. A TechStars alum, the Boulder, Colo.-based company debuted the Sphero at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and plans to launch the product next holiday season.

GoldSpot Media raises $12M for mobile ad tool: The developer of a self-serve solution for managing mobile ad campaigns has raised a second round of funding from Exa Ventures and Berg Enterprises. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company lets publishers and advertisers create and track in-app and mobile web campaigns across all smartphones and tablets.

Companies: Berg Enterprises, Betaworks, emPower!, Exa Ventures, Foundry Group, Goldspot Media, Highway 12 Ventures, Orbotix, PixelOptics, Safeguard Scientifics, SocialFlow, Softbank, Sphero, techstars, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Social media data company Mediasift announced today that it is partnering with Twitter to sell data the Twitter’s “firehose” of data through its DataSift service. Mediasift is only the second company to sign such a deal with Twitter — the other is Gnip.

I interviewed Twitter’s platform lead Ryan Sarver this afternoon to talk about the deal and how it fits into Twitter’s broader platform strategy.

Last month, Sarver published a post in Twitter’s developer forum explaining that it’s a bad idea for developers to build apps that “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” Instead, he wrote, they should focus on one of five areas –publisher tools, curation, realtime data, customer service, and value-added content. He said Twitter “wants the bar to be really low” for developers to build those services, which is why the company partnered with both Mediasift and Gnip. Many developers want access to Twitter’s data, but Twitter doesn’t want to spend a lot of time negotiating with all of them, or building the necessary data tools.

Instead, Sarver said, Twitter wants to work with a very small group of trusted partners who sell access to the data on Twitter’s behalf. Each of those partners should serve a different need. Gnip, Sarver said, focuses on “large bulk data”, while DataSift helps customers filter data from Twitter to find the specific information that’s relevant to them. (Mediasift also operates the Tweetmeme service for consumers.) And yes, Twitter wants to work with other data partners, as long as they are “adding their own variety” to the ecosystem.

“It’s not zero sum,” Sarver added. “There are so many different ways to analyze and quantify what’s going on.”

He also clarified that while companies like to talk about providing access to the full Twitter firehose, they’re not actually showing that firehose to their customers. Instead, Gnip and DataSift provide slices of data from Twitter — for example, Sarver said, a DataSift customer can’t ask to see every tweet ever, but it could request every single tweet that mentions “Coca Cola”.

[photo via Flickr/Perry McKenna]

Tags: DataSift

Companies: Gnip, Mediasift, Twitter

People: Ryan Sarver

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals