Talkwalker, a Luxembourg-based social listening and analytics platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has announced that it is set to be acquired by Canadian social media management company Hootsuite.
Founded in Luxembourg in 2009, Talkwalker has nine offices worldwide, from its headquarters in Luxembourg-Kirchberg to Tokyo, Singapore and New York. With this acquisition, its Luxembourg headquarters will become the European headquarters of Hootsuite.
Commenting on the news, Lokdeep Singh, Chief Executive at Talkwalker, said: "I am confident this acquisition marks a significant milestone not just for Talkwalker, but for Luxembourg. It proves this vibrant ecosystem's immense potential for nurturing and scaling startups into global tech leaders. Together with Hootsuite, we'll continue to harness Luxembourg's dynamic environment, propelling innovation, driving growth and serving our customers as we shape the future of social media performance."
Whilst many of today's businesses boast a social presence, the latest research by Hootsuite revealed a gap: only 56% of organisations believe they truly grasp their social media strategies' business impact and return on investment (ROI). This has sparked a shift from social media management to social media performance.
"Hootsuite exists to help customers unlock the value of their social media relationships," the press release said. "By acquiring Talkwalker, one of Luxembourg's most high-profile startup success stories, Hootsuite takes this mission to the next level. By bringing together two category leaders, businesses will, for the first time, have a social media performance engine to turn insights into action into impact - all fuelled by AI."
"We have had listening for years. But it was industry standard, just like everyone else's. While that worked then, the industry is entering a new era of social media performance," explained Irina Novoselsky, CEO of Hootsuite. "To achieve this, we're building a social media performance engine, a feedback loop where AI takes consumer data and generates insights for actionable strategies and measurable impact. The combination of the world's best insights technology, Talkwalker, brought into Hootsuite, leapfrogs the industry into the future of social marketing."
This acquisition is expected to help customers: increase their brand awareness; drive lead generation; get global listening coverage; experience AI built for social; work in a single control room of insight, action and impact.
The acquisition follows a series of job cuts at Talkwalker in recent years. The transaction price has not (yet) been disclosed.
