Lithium Technologies is reportedly solidifying plans to buy Klout for an estimated $100 million or more, according to an exclusive report today by website Re/code.
This is important because it signals yet another major development in the area of customer experience management, which has become a rallying cry of many businesses in recent months.
The rumored acquirer offers Lithium Social Web, which it gained through its acquisition more than a year ago of Social Dynamx. Customers of its social customer experience solutions have included AT&T, BT, Best Buy, Indosat, Sephora, Skype, and Telstra.
Lithium President and CEO Rob Tarkoff said: “Visionary companies see increasing customer expectations as an opportunity. Savvy financial services providers like Barclaycard use the Lithium platform to engage and enlist their customers in an entirely new way —inviting them to participate in the business as partners, helping to reinvent old business models. Not only are firms like Barclaycard gaining competitive advantage by building the kind of relationships customers expect today, they’re leading an entire industry by delivering a fully differentiated, disruptive customer experience.”
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Klout refers to itself as the standard for influence. It offers ways to enable brands to benefit from people who are considered influencers within the social networking environment, and vice versa. The company claims it is all about empowering people to benefit from their influence, whether it’s by getting access to Cathay Pacific’s first class lounge when they show their Klout Score to the receptionist, or by getting excellent customer service via their influence with other people.
Re/code, which broke this story today, also noted that this would be a perfect pairing. However, it added, that Klout has “become a bit of a whipping boy for criticism of the vanity of social media.”