Clearspring Buys Audience Specialist XGraph

US social media software company Clearspring Technologies has acquired data sciences firm XGraph Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

XGraph helps clients target ads at people who share similar lifestyles, values and purchasing habits with their current core customers.

Through the acquisition, Clearspring will add XGraph's audience targeting to its AddThis platform, which enables publishers to distribute and track digital content on social networks; and to its Audience Platform, which aggregates data from AddThis to enable advertisers and publishers to target specific audiences. Clearspring says this means it can map 1.2 billion users' connections by brand affiliation, intent and social behavior.

Key Compton, XGraph's founder and CEO, comments: 'Most companies only capture one dimension of how we're all connected with-a single graph approach. XGraph not only models these social connections, but also multiple other types of connections such as brand affiliations, intent and more - a multi-graph approach. We're excited to leverage our technology to unlock the value of Clearspring's massive data set.'

XGraph is headquartered in New York with an office in Silicon Valley. Following the deal, all XGraph employees based in New York will join Clearspring's office there, while Clearspring plans to keep the office in Silicon Valley. The combined company will have 85 employees nationwide.

Web sites: www.clearspring.com and www.xgraph.com .