Poptip, a New York based startup that helps companies analyse online conversations and conduct social media surveys, announced this week that it has been acquired by big data company Palantir Technologies. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Poptip confirmed that its team would be joining Palantir beginning August 1.
Launched in 2004, Palantir has raised a considerable amount of money in funding rounds – approximately $900 million – and is valued at $9 billion. The company offers its data analysis technology to financial institutions and government agencies, and has reportedly been used for fraud prevention and helping capture Osama bin Laden.
While some have commented that the acquisition seems to be a misfit – with Palantir being a data analysis company selling its technology to organisations and Poptip being a social marketing/polling company – Poptip commented on how they could add to the analytic capabilities of Palantir in a blog post recently:
“The Poptip team has worked tirelessly to develop innovative technology that helps commercial companies process unstructured conversation data. And we’ve been fortunate enough to help quantify the voices of hundreds of millions of people through our products.”
“Our work at Poptip was our first foray in real time data analysis. But we know we still have so much room to innovate and grow, and Palantir gives us the resources to do just that.”
Palantir’s investors include Founders Fund, In-Q-Tel, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Tiger Global Management.
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(Image Credit: Jason Howie)
