Apple Buys Social Search & Analytics Firm Topsy for $200m

Software developer Apple acquired its second company in as many weeks on Monday by picking up Twitter analytics specialists Topsy.

Following its acquisition of Primesense, the company behind Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect sensor last week, Apple confirmed on Monday that it bought Topsy, a company that specialises in analysing Twitter data.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple coughed up a cool $200m for the social media firm, but Apple has not confirmed the amount. Instead, an Apple spokesperson said vaguely, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

It’s still unclear why Apple decided to acquire Topsy, and it seems like an out of character acquisition for the firm, with the iPhone and iPad maker yet to enter the world of social media.

According to Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi, Apple might have acquired the company to serve better app recommendations to its customers.

“From an usage perspective, they can use it for the app store and iTunes,” Milanesi said. “With apps, it is really difficult to find good recommendations. It’s much harder to see what people use and why.”

There’s also talk that Apple might be looking to improve the advertisements that it shows in its services such as iTunes Radio, and tune its digitial voice assistant Siri, which started quoting Twitter information following the rollout of iOS 7.

Topsy has yet to comment on the acquisition.

This article was originally published on http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2316738/apple-buys-social-search-analytics-firm-topsy-for-usd200m.