CrowdTangle gets acquired by Facebook

Facebook has purchased a Baltimore-based startup that tracks how much attention posts like this get on social media.

CrowdTangle announced the news Friday, leading to stories from a host of national tech and business outlets. Fortune deemed it an acquisition “of note,” considering the scourge of fake news stories that may have played a role in last week’s presidential election.
Founded by Brandon Silverman and Matthew Garmur, the five-year-old startup makes a dashboard to help publishers track content to see which posts are performing best on social media. The tool also shows companies how their competitors’ posts are doing, and can be used to track across platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Reddit. A Fast Company profile from last year says it is used by Buzzfeed, Vox, Mic, ESPN and the Huffington Post, as well as sports teams and brands.

Awesome collaboration with Facebook team at the conventions this year…our big screen in Philly this week! pic.twitter.com/mNOxswuYZU

— crowdtangle (@crowdtangle) July 28, 2016

The company, which the Verge notes has a distributed team, raised $2.2 million in 2014. In a letter announcing the deal, the founders wrote that Facebook data has been a primary fascination from day one.
“We think Facebook is the single most powerful platform in the world in connecting people to each other and to stories they care about,” the founders wrote. “And at a time when there is a revolution taking place in how people connect with the world, our team is passionate about building tools that help publishers get the data and insights they need to succeed. Being able to continue our work but with the full support and resources of Facebook is a dream come true.”
Terms were not disclosed.