Spredfast Acquires Shoutlet For A Social Marketing Team-Up

Spredfast has acquired another social marketing company, Shoutlet.

While the two companies are in the same industry, Spredfast CEO Rod Favaron (pictured above) said that when he looks at their products, he sees “a lot more complements than overlaps.” In particular, he said Spredfast has focused on helping companies find and create content for social media, while Shoutlet’s strength is more on the data side.

“We both fit categorically in this area of social relationship management, but Shoutlet has focused on gathering customer data and insights and figuring out ways to integrate that back into the enterprise,” added Shoutlet co-founder and CEO President Aaron Everson.

According to Favaron, “almost” the entire Shoutlet team will be joining Spredfast. While Spredfast is based in Austin, it will keep Shoutlet’s offices in Madison, Wisconsin. And it will continue to offer Shoutlet products — the goal is to integrate when the two product lineups offer unique features, and to “normalize” in the areas where they overlap.

The financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Shoutlet had previously raised about $24 million in equity funding, plus a $5 million debt round earlier this year.

Favaron said the combined companies have a headcount of more than 600 employees and work with more than 1,400 customers. Spredfast merged with Mass Relevance last year, so I asked if he expects to see more consolidation among social marketing startups.

“Most of the consolidation to date has been the really big companies buying some things and creating the clouds,” he replied. “That hasn’t worked. Big guys buy little guys and then they slow the little guys down. … We stubbornly believe that an independent with the right width and the right footprint can continue to win.”