Everyone remembers when Facebook bought Instagram for a headline-friendly billion dollars last April. But what about the 10 companies it acquired after that? Or the 29 prior?
The social media landscape is in such a constant state of flux that it's sometimes hard to remember who did what when.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and The Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc (JEGI) teamed up to take snapshots of what the social media ecosystem looks like right now.
Among other things, the report breaks down the acquisition timelines for major digital players, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Google.
Facebook's acquisition timeline:
According to the report, "Facebook has acqui‐hired talented staff from a number of companies in addition to its traditional M&A, focusing on enhanced content sharing/discovery (FriendFeed, Face.com), IP (Tagtile), location awareness (Gowalla), ecommerce/gifts (Karma) and mobile (Glancee, Lightbox)."
Furthermore, Facebook is known to scoop up its competition for hefty chunks of change. When threatened by Instagram in the image and mobile space, Facebook bought the start-up for a cool billion dollars.
Twitter's acquisition timeline:
Twitter's acquisitions help boost user experience and its ad-based business model.
The report notes that "areas of interest include keyword bidding, social marketing automation, geo‐targeted ads, and social analytics," which is reflected by recent buys.
LinkedIn's acquisition timeline:
LinkedIn acquired SlideShare, a company that allows users to easily share business documents and presentations, for $119 in May 2012. Apart from that, LinkedIn's acquisitions "have typically focused on tuck‐ins and tend to acquire businesses that are pre‐revenue."
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