Content Analyst Parse.ly Acquired by WordPress VIP

Online attention tracking and content analytics specialist Parse.ly has been acquired by WordPress VIP (WPVIP), the enterprise content blogging site owned by publishing platform provider Automattic. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Parse.ly is based in New York and backed by venture capital. The firm taps a network of media and content-driven sites, whose audiences view hundreds of thousands of articles each day, using NLP and machine learning to summarise what's grabbing attention and through which sources. It also offers a trend and topic tracking service called Currents, giving marketers and publishers dashboard information on what's being discussed and where audiences for each topic are focused.

WPVIP will now incorporate Parse.ly's capabilities for real-time content analytics and its personalized recommendation engine. All of Parse.ly's roughly 50 employees will join Wordpress VIP's team of 150 people, including founders Sachin Kamdar and Andrew Montalenti: Kamdar will lead go-to-market strategy for Parse.ly and Montalenti will lead product; while Nick Gernert, CEO of WPVIP, will lead the combined organizations.

Commenting on the acquisition, Kamdar said: 'We've always had deep admiration for WPVIP's market position as the gold standard for enterprise content teams, and we're thrilled to be able to join together. From the culture and people to the product, market and vision, we're in lockstep to create more value for our customers. This powerful combination of content and intelligence will push the industry forward at an accelerated pace'.

Web sites: www.parse.ly and www.wpvip.com .