Cicero Buys PR Tracking Specialist Yatterbox

In the UK, financial sector corporate affairs and public policy consultancy Cicero Group has acquired political comment monitoring service Yatterbox. Exact terms of the deal, which value Yatterbox at a 'significant six-figure sum', were not disclosed.

Yatterbox helps clients in communications, government affairs, brand and marketing roles to identify and track key influencers and commentators who impact their reputations, and alerts them in real-time when commentators mention their organisation, its issues, or competitors online.

Earlier this year, the two companies launched a joint venture to provide insight and analysis on the social media output of all UK politicians, and at the time, the Yatterbox team was integrated with Cicero's Digital team in London.

As part of the acquisition, Yatterbox has broadened its original remit of tracking just 600 UK-based politicians, to include more than 4,000 influencers drawn from the media, politics, think tanks, government departments and the 'blogosphere', as well as other key individuals. Cicero plans to rapidly expand the platform to 25,000 people, to include every UK-based journalist, politician and important influencer, by the end of the year.

Yatterbox founder Matt Freckelton and CTO Mark Hudghton have now joined Cicero, whose CEO Jeremy Swan (pictured) comments: 'Building on the hard work of the team since it launched nearly three years ago, I want the platform to become the number one social media tool for PR, communications and public affairs professionals. That is our aim, and by providing a stronger platform that includes all key influencers that matter to our users we believe we can get there very quickly.'

Web sites: www.cicero-group.com and www.yatterbox.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.