Janrain Buys Social Media Specialist Arktan

In the US, online customer profiling specialist Janrain has acquired social media engagement and trends technology firm Arktan, in order to create a combined portfolio of solutions for audience targeting and profile management.

Arktan develops social media products to help brands increase customer engagement on their sites and mobile apps, while capturing user data. This includes products to enable users to comment, leave ratings and reviews, or participate in polls online, as well as those to offer clients real-time trend and sentiment analysis.

Janrain says the buy will allow it to integrate customer identity with engagement and activity data, to enhance marketers' understanding of their customers. As part of the deal, Arktan co-founder Rahul Aggarwai joins Janrain as General Manager of its Customer Engagement business unit.

Larry Drebes (pictured), Janrain CEO, comments: 'This acquisition adds dozens of new products for customer engagement, and dramatically expands the amount of customer data we collect, store and manage. Adding the team to Janrain will deepen our understanding of customers in new ways.'

Web sites: www.janrain.com and www.arktan.com .