Photo: PCMag.com
Seesmic, the medium popularly used for various social media desktop, mobile and Internet applications, has been acquired by HootSuite, Loic Le Meur (
@Loic), Seesmic chief executive, has confirmed.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but it is believed that a huge chunk of the target firm's current staff will lose their jobs. However, some of the people from Seesmic's original roster will be retained.
According to Ryan Holmes (
@HootSuite), CEO of HootSuite, one the biggest reasons for the acquisition of Seesmic is to improve the HootSuite user base. At present, the company has around 4.5 million users, while Seesmic attracts between 30,000 and 40,000 unique visitors every month. There are still distinctions to be made as to how many users are actually generating revenue for the business and which are only availing of the service for free. Nevertheless, the numbers are huge and a good enough reason for the takeover.
'We've always been big fans of Ryan Holmes and the HootSuite team, since the days we were all pioneering the social media landscape,' said Le Meur in a statement.
'We're thrilled to announce that Seesmic is joining HootSuite, and we're excited for our users: they are becoming part of the HootSuite family, and they will be able to continue to build their brand and social business,' he added.
Netizens used to pick among three main companies when it comes to social media dashboards ? HootSuite, Seesmic and Tweetdeck. Now, HootSuite only needs to keep improving its services and options for users to stay ahead of Tweetdeck. The two platforms are reliable and invest heavily in its good connections with social network giant Twitter.
The restrictions made by Twitter to eliminate third party applications will predictably put the two platforms in a better position when it comes to its relationship with its online users. Tweetdeck is owned by Twitter while HootSuite partnered with Twitter to generate more revenue through online ads.
