Call it a digital dark art but there’s apparently a growing market for companies that sell services to help individuals and businesses improve their online reputation by removing or burying negative bits and bytes. Redwood City-based online reputation management and digital privacy company Reputation.com has announced it’s acquired Liverpool, U.K.-based Reputation 24/7 to bolster its international business — which is active in more than 100 countries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Reputation 24/7 has been rebranded Reputation.com (U.K.) and will sell Reputation.com’s suite of consumer and business online reputation management offerings to European customers.
“With this acquisition, Reputation.com is expanding Silicon Valley to the United Kingdom and opening the door to a strong market for future growth,” said CEO and Founder Michael Fertik in a statement. “Reputation 24/7 exemplifies the best of the U.K.’s robust tech industry and its capabilities align nicely with our core strengths. This acquisition supports our growing international presence, which includes customers in more than 100 countries.”
Reputation.com said it plans to invest significantly in the Liverpool-based operation, using it as its European headquarters. A company spokeswoman told TechCrunch it would be investing “millions [GBP] over the next year to support the UK branch’s expansion — in both capabilities and hiring”.
Fertik also told Liverpool’s Daily Post newspaper that he had chosen to base Reputation.com’s European HQ in Liverpool ahead of London and Germany because of the quality of the city’s workforce and universities. “The other great thing about Liverpool is that Liverpool people want to stay in Liverpool. That gives us a stable workforce, and that’s a terrific resource for a company like ours,” he added.
Reputation.com, which says it has patented “solutions that safeguard and remove personal data from the Internet, monitor and respond to online reviews, build a positive and accurate Web presence for clients, and help businesses proactively engage customers” describes online reputation management as “removing or burying any website, online newspaper article, blog, forum or review which does not represent our client as positively as they deserve”, and cites the following among its past successes:
- DEFENDED: Search suggestions presented when searching this client’s brand highlighted recent regulatory announcements.
- DEFENDED: A disgruntled ex-employee of our client had been posting malicious comments online for several years.
- DEFENDED: One dissatisfied customer in 1000’s created a hate-site dedicated to a Reputation.com client’s business.
- DEFENDED: News of the World story appearing in search results for our client’s brand.
Full release follows below.
Reputation.com Acquires U.K. Online Reputation Management Leader
Acquisition Supports Company’s Customer Base of Global 2000 Corporations and More Than a Million Consumers In Over 100 CountriesREDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Reputation.com, the market and technology leader in online reputation management and digital privacy, announced its global expansion with the acquisition of Reputation 24/7, a United Kingdom-based online reputation management firm.
“With this acquisition, Reputation.com is expanding Silicon Valley to the United Kingdom and opening the door to a strong market for future growth,” said CEO and Founder Michael Fertik. “Reputation 24/7 exemplifies the best of the U.K.’s robust tech industry and its capabilities align nicely with our core strengths. This acquisition supports our growing international presence, which includes customers in more than 100 countries.”
Now known as Reputation.com (U.K.), the former Reputation 24/7 will offer Reputation.com’s suite of consumer and business-focused online reputation and social media management solutions to European customers. Reputation.com will also invest in the U.K. operation, enabling it to grow significantly over the next year.
“As a global company, we’ll continue the mission we adopted since Reputation.com’s inception in 2006: to empower individuals and businesses with innovation that supports digital privacy and online reputation management,” said Fertik.
Reputation.com’s business products enable both small and medium businesses as well as FTSE 100 companies to manage their online reputations, including monitoring online review sites and social media outlets, analyzing content to understand customer perception trends, and creating customized outreach campaigns. Customers can also use Reputation.com’s patented scoring technology to obtain their reputation scores, which show how a business measures up against local and national competitors in the eyes of their customers.
Reputation.com also offers consumer-focused solutions that empower individuals to manage all aspects of their online reputation, from removing personally identifiable information, to monitoring social media photos and content to optimizing their search results.
About Reputation.com
Reputation.com was founded in 2006 to give individuals and businesses the power to control their digital privacy and reputation. The company continues to pioneer patented solutions that safeguard and remove personal data from the Internet, monitor and respond to online reviews, build a positive and accurate Web presence for clients, and help businesses proactively engage customers.
Reputation.com is a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company and multiple award winner, including the recent Silver for the Best in Biz Awards for “Most Customer Friendly Company” in 2012. It is funded by top-tier venture capital firms and has customers in 100 countries.