Seattle-based social media analytics firm Rival IQ has been acquired by NetBase Quid, a market intelligence firm headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Rival IQ CEO John Clark said the company's 14 employees will all be joining NetBase Quid as part of the deal, which the companies announced Wednesday. Rival IQ will now go by "Rival IQ, a NetBase Quid company."
The companies are not disclosing the financial terms of the deal, but NetBase Quid Executive Vice President Bob Ciccone said some of NetBase's own employees are moving to the Seattle area now that the company has a presence here.
"We're very happy to have a critical mass in Seattle, both for access to the talent and for choice of lifestyle for those who prefer that," Ciccone said.
Ciccone added that three of NetBase's roughly 250-person team is currently in the Seattle area, but he expects that number to grow. NetBase's chief operating officer, former Starbucks and Tableau executive Seujan Bertram, is based in Seattle, according to Ciccone. As for Rival IQ, Clark said 11 of the company's employees are based here.
Rival IQ was founded in 2012 but incorporated in 2013, according to Clark. The company helps social media marketers at brands and agencies measure the success of their posts. Rival IQ also provides benchmarking tools so marketers can see how their social posts are performing compared with competitors. Its clients include L'Oréal USA and Team Canada.
NetBase Quid, meanwhile, was founded in 2004. The company scours the web to help clients understand what consumers and media outlets are saying about them, going beyond Rival IQ's speciality of owned media. NetBase also helps clients understand consumer attitudes and news coverage of whole product categories, like sugar-free sodas. Coca-Cola, T-Mobile and United Airlines are all clients of NetBase.
Clark didn't put an estimate on how many employees Rival IQ will have in a year. The company currently has office space at the Logan Building downtown, and Clark said Rival IQ is still considering its future physical footprint needs.
"We hope to real soon now be in a situation where we're having at least small-team or all-team-type meetings together, and we expect to be leveraging a physical space to do that," Clark said.
