Google boosts social media with Wildfire buy

Google has bought social media management tool Wildfire for $250m, as the firm looks to rival the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

US-based Wildfire was co-founded four years ago by Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard.
The firm is focused on helping brands optimize their presence across various social networks. It offers a software platform that integrates directly with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Wildfire claims to serve some 16,000 customers, including 30 of the top 50 brands, with its nearly 400 employees. “We believe that over time the combination of Wildfire and Google can lead to a better platform for managing all digital media marketing,” said Ransom and Chuard in a blog post.
The current focus will however remain on helping brands run and measure their social engagement and ad campaigns across the entire web and across social services, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. “To this end, Wildfire will operate as usual, and there will be no changes to our service and support for our customers,” the founders wrote.

Google product management director Jason Miller confirmed the purchase but not the price, saying both Ransom and Chaurd would be joining Google.
”They and their team have built a service that helps businesses like Virgin, Cirque du Soleil, Gilt Group and Spotify manage their social efforts across numerous social websites,” he said.
”It’s a platform for brands to manage their pages, apps, tweets, videos, sponsorships, ads, promotions and more, all in one place.”
Read the official Wildfire blog post here