(1 August 2012 4:40 pm)

MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google has acquired social media marketing firm Wildfire which powers social media marketing for over 16,000 businesses, including 30 of the top 50 global brands. It offers a complete Social Marketing Suite.

While financial details of the deal have not been disclosed Google is estimated to have paid about $250 million. Wildfire counts Summit Partners, TransLink Capital, fbFund, 500 Startups, SoftTech VC, and Felicis Ventures as its investors.

Following the acquisition, the Wildfire team will be absorbed into Google.

In early 2012, Wildfire became the first social media marketing company to have a software platform that integrates directly with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

"We're happy to share that the Wildfire team will be joining Google. Their co-founders, Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard, launched their startup just four years ago. Since then, they and their team have built a service that helps businesses like Virgin, Cirque du Soleil, Gilt Group and Spotify manage their social efforts across numerous social websites. It's a platform for brands to manage their pages, apps, tweets, videos, sponsorships, ads, promotions and more, all in one place," Google said in a statement.