TechCrunch has discovered and confirmed that software giant Oracle has bought social marketing platform Vitrue for $300 million. [Update: A press release has confirmed the buy at an undisclosed price, though we know it to be $300 million.] As if Oracle didn’t offer enough products and services already, the acquisition will give it a strong Facebook marketing platform to offer its enterprise clients.
Vitrue had taken $33 million in funding over the years and grown to become one of the most popular solutions for big companies trying to win Facebook fans and push out marketing messages to the news feed. Vitrue, according to a source, was on course for revenues of just under $100 million this year, although we have other sources disputing it may have been that high. TC understands there were a lot of potential acquirers interested. Several bidders approached the company but Oracle was the most aggressive.
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Kevin Systrom, the CEO of Instagram, earlier this week spelled out a few ways that Instragram might, one day, make revenue through marketing and advertising around its photo-taking, filtering and sharing service, which now has 27 million registered users. But for now, another company is using some of the big buzz around the mobile startup for its own business gain:
Vitrue has launched an Instagram “tab module” for brands to use on their Facebook pages, using Instagram’s API to automatically import a selection of pictures based around a specific tag and create albums. The social media marketing company claims that this is an industry first. But more generally, it is also a sign of how marketeers are trying to incorporate more visual elements into their Facebook campaigns to make them more engaging with users. → Read More
Vitrue, a social media marketing company, is rolling out version 3.0 of its social media management platform for brands. New features include localization and enhanced analytics and metrics within one dashboard interface.
As we’ve written in the past, Vitrue’s SaaS platform allows brands and marketing agencies to
communicate with fans and consumers across Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts, location based services, and via mobile applications. The company’s SRM (social relationship management) platform is being used by a number of high profile brands including Harley Davidson, Mentos, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Crocs, Eddie Bauer, Maybelline, Purina, McDonald’s, YouTube, Ford, AT&T, Disney and Best Buy.
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Editor’s note: Reggie Bradford is the CEO of Vitrue, a social media marketing platform based in Atlanta.
Do serious tech companies still need to be based in Silicon Valley? There seems to be an endless debate about this among founders everywhere. My own startup, Vitrue, turns 5 this week. That’s forever in startup years, and it’s got me to thinking about my friend Ron Conway. Ron invested in Vitrue on October 28, 2006. He’s a true industry legend (noteworthy enough to have his own Wikipedia page) and a long-time Valley resident. At the time, we had several late-night, semi-sober conversations about moving the headquarters to Silicon Valley. Five years later I’m glad I stuck to my guns and kept the company in The Big Peach. We have quite a vibrant startup community here with companies such as MailChimp, MFG.com, and Scoutmob, and Solo Health.
So with all due respect to my good friend and uber-Angel investor Ron Conway, here are five reasons why I’m glad I didn’t move us from Atlanta to the Valley. And why Silicon Valley, despite still being the capital of the technology world, doesn’t necessarily make or break a company. → Read More
Vitrue, a social media marketing company, has raised $17 million in Series C financing led by Scale Venture Partners and Advent Venture Partners with existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Comcast Interactive, and Dace Ventures participating in the round. This brings Vitrue’s total funding to $32 million. In conjunction with the announcement, former Facebook Vice President of Global Sales Mike Murphy has joined Vitrue as Special Advisor to the CEO.
As we’ve written in the past, Vitrue’s SaaS platform allows brands and marketing agencies to
communicate with fans and consumers across Facebook and Twitter accounts, location based services, and via mobile applications. The company’s SRM (social relationship management) platform is being used by a number of high profile brands including Harley Davidson, Mentos, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Crocs, Eddie Bauer, Maybelline, Purina, McDonald’s, YouTube, Ford, AT&T, Disney and Best Buy. → Read More
What do Harley Davidson, Mentos, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Crocs, Eddie Bauer, Maybelline, Denver Broncos, University of Texas Athletic Department, and Purina all have in common? They’re brands that have signed up with Vitrue, a social media marketing company — just in the last quarter. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was their best quarter ever in terms of revenue and expansion.
It’s been a while since we’ve written about the company — in fact, as far as I can tell, it has been about four years. Back then, Vitrue was just getting started, taking seed funding from Ron Conway and others. Since then, they’ve raised several million more dollars, but have also developed an SRM (social relationship management) platform that is used by some of the largest companies in the world. → Read More
User-generated video sharing site ViTrue, Inc. has come some reputable new investors, including Ron Conway, one of the original investors in Google, often called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Last month, the company announced a major Series “A” round of funding from Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting – although they could only say it’s in the single digit millions. Other recent investors include Dallas Clement, executive vice president of strategy at Cox, Bahns Stanley, a founding executive of Landmark Communications (owner of Weather Channel), and a handful of others. ViTrue hosts user-generated (UG) video a la YouTube with an advertising focus. This relatively new type of advertising is called Branded Video Community, meant to promote “brand engagement.” So if you love the San Francisco Giants, (and who doesn’t?), you can create a video promoting the team and post it through ViTrue. For now, ViTrue only has homemade video for Moe’s Southwest Grill, Lance Foods, The Cincinnati Bengals, and something called The Nerd League. Not exactly brands I want to “engage” with but I’m not saying this kind of advertising won’t be effective. It’s too soon to tell, but Ted Turner is a believer. Maybe this is how the online video world will finally figure out how to monetize UG video and avoid copyright lawsuits? Lord knows YouTube is worth a lot of money, but Google hasn’t been talking much about how they’re going to cash in on the acquisition. Plus they keep having to filter content for illegal uploads of copyright material. So if sponsoring UG content is the new plan, ViTrue just has to hope and pray that someone will come up with something hilarious for Moe’s Southwest Grill. (Note to contributors: competitive eating is always a winner!) Turner Broadcasting will test this model later this year when it launches an online campaign called “Funny or Not?” ViTrue is no stranger to UG video. The company owns Sharkle.com, the online video-sharing community. → Read More
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