Brand Networks Buys Social Marketer Shift for $50M, Adds New Product

Social-media marketing and advertising firm Brand Networks has acquired another marketing company, Shift, which specializes in advertising across Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, for $50 million in cash and stock, the companies announced today.

With the deal, Boston-based Brand Networks says it is announcing a new product called RelevanceRank, which uses an algorithm to help marketers and advertisers predict on which social network they should promote paid and organic content. Brand Networks is bringing on Los Angeles-based Shift’s co-founder and CEO, James Borow, as the chief product officer.

The combined companies said they will handle about $500 million in social advertising spending for companies and ad agencies including Interpublic Group, WPP, American Express, AT&T, Discover, Yahoo, and Unilever.

Brand Networks has been turning heads in recent years, particularly after Facebook went public in 2012. It raised a $68 million growth investment from private equity firm AEA Investors in 2013.

Author: David Holley

David is the national correspondent at Xconomy. He has spent most of his career covering business of every kind, from breweries in Oregon to investment banks in New York. A native of the Pacific Northwest, David started his career reporting at weekly and daily newspapers, covering murder trials, city council meetings, the expanding startup tech industry in the region, and everything between. He left the West Coast to pursue business journalism in New York, first writing about biotech and then private equity at The Deal. After a stint at Bloomberg News writing about high-yield bonds and leveraged loans, David relocated from New York to Austin, TX. He graduated from Portland State University.