Google Acquires Wildfire Interactive

On July 31, Google announced its acquisition of Wildfire Interactive , a provider of social media marketing software. Summit Partners, which invested in Wildfire in 2010, was the largest outside investor and the sole professional investor on Wildfire’s Board of Directors. Wildfire wrote about the news on its social media marketing blog:

Wildfire is Joining Google! Posted by Cofounders Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard to Wildfire’s Social Media Marketing Blog on July 31, 2012

Four years ago, we set out on a journey to make social media marketing easier and more effective. We thought our idea had potential, but little did we know what an incredible ride it would be. Not only have we helped to define and build an entirely new industry, but we’ve created a company that’s larger (from 5 to almost 400 employees in two and a half years!) and more successful (we’re proud to serve 16,000 customers including 30 of the top 50 brands) than we ever imagined.

Today we are about to start a new chapter of our story and we couldn’t be more excited to share the news: Wildfire is joining Google! We truly could not think of a more perfect home for Wildfire. It makes us so happy to know that joining with Google will make it easier for us to realize our vision of changing the way the world markets and enable us to live up to our commitment to make Wildfire an incredible place for our team and our customers.

We believe that over time the combination of Wildfire and Google can lead to a better platform for managing all digital media marketing. For now, we remain focused on helping brands run and measure their social engagement and ad campaigns across the entire web and across all social services—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more—and to deliver rich and satisfying experiences for their consumers. To this end, Wildfire will operate as usual, and there will be no changes to our service and support for our customers.

So many people have helped us get to this exciting point in Wildfire’s evolution; more people than we could ever list or recognize. But we would like to call out a few of you. First and foremost our wonderful customers—thank you for choosing Wildfire as your partner in social media marketing. Thanks to our awesome team—you are the most impressive group of people we have ever had the privilege of working with and it goes without saying that we wouldn’t be where we are today without each and every one of you. Thanks to Summit Partners and our other investors for all your support; your guidance has helped us to not only be one of the most successful companies in our space but also the most capital efficient.

Finally, huge thanks to our friends and partners at Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and most especially Facebook. Were it not for the social media revolution that you have all helped to create, Wildfire would not even exist. We are committed to continue building tools that help enhance the way brands and consumers experience each of your respective social networks.

In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners Limited, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Summit Partners Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 4141197, and its registered office is at 20–22 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JS, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.