Kantar Media Buys Social Media Specialist FishEye

Kantar Media has announced the acquisition of Singapore-based social media listening firm FishEye Analytics. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

FishEye, which employs 14 people and had revenue of c.$SG 783k (£383k) for the year ending October 31, 2013, was founded in 2009 in Singapore and has an R&D centre in Hyderabad, India. The firm's technology collects and analyses online discussions in 67 languages using proprietary NLP and text mining features. Clients include governments and international organizations 'from Asia to Middle-East and Europe', as well as some of the world's major sports governing bodies.

The WPP division says the buy adds to its global multi-lingual social media measurement and analysis capabilities. Global CEO Andy Brown says Asian business development is a strategic priority: 'Following the acquisition of China social insight experts CIC in 2012, I'm delighted that we can complement our services and develop new client offers by combining our data and tools with Fisheye Analytics.'

FishEye's co-founder and CEO Ashwin Reddy Gayam says the new parent firm is 'the ideal environment for our capabilities', adding: 'We will provide Kantar Media clients with accessible and intelligent analysis of brand discussions that take place online and offline, and across geographies.'

The acquisition continues WPP's strategy of investing in fast-growth markets and sectors. The Group and its associates generate revenues of around US$350m in Singapore, and employ 2,000 people.

Kantar Media is part of WPP and is online at www.kantarmedia.com . Home pages for CIC and FishEye are at www.cicdata.com and www.fisheyeanalytics.com .