Sprinklr Acquires TBG Digital, Ups Media Profile

Continuing its acquisition tear, Sprinklr has agreed to buy social marketing veteran TBG Digital.

The social media management firm said the addition of TBG Digital will give clients a much clearer picture of cross-channel media spends, and paid media in particular.

“The big question is, where does the money go?” said Jeremy Epstein, vice president of marketing at Sprinklr. “TBG helps brands figure that out.”

The deal -- financial terms were not disclosed -- will add about 100 employees to Sprinklr’s existing workforce of about 400, Epstein said.

Post-acquisition, Sprinklr will boast more than 650 enterprise brands, including GM, Virgin America, Samsung, and Microsoft, and process more than $100 million in annual media spend.

Aggressively taking market share, Sprinklr picked up Dachis Group and its social analytics and optimization technology earlier this year. Dachis’s social consulting practice was also added to Sprinklr’s services enablement practice. At the time of the deal, Sprinklr CEO Ragy Thomas estimated that it would have taken 12 to 15 months to build offerings comparable to Dachis’.

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Analysts say such deals shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, over the next year or two, social-media management firms -- including technology vendors and agencies -- will shrink from roughly 200 to less than 24, according to Mukul Krishna, digital media industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Consolidation is definitely needed -- and definitely happening,” Krishna told Social Media & Marketing Daily, earlier this year. “The market is extremely fragmented and filled with vendors and agencies promising to manage everything, which is BS.”

Other notable tie-ups in the space include Lithium Technologies’ agreement to buy Klout for a reported $200 million, and, more recently, Mass Relevance merging with Spredfast.

More broadly, Forrester Research has predicted that social media will have the highest cumulative aggregate growth rate across all channels through 2014.

Last November, Sprinklr completed a $17.5 million Series C funding round led by Battery Ventures and Intel Capital. With the raise, the company then set out to add another 100 employees by mid-to-late 2014, and continue its international expansion.

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