Datran Media acquires social news site Allvoices

Digital marketing services firm Datran Media has acquired social news site Allvoices, it said May 4. The deal will let Datran license the site's proprietary crowd-sourcing technology to its clients, said Patrick Vogt, chairman and CEO of Datran.

The Allvoices site, which lets consumers post news content through an online platform, will continue to operate in its current form, and Datran will retain all Allvoices employees. The marketing services firm named Allvoices founder and CEO Amra Tareen the SVP of strategy at Datran, reporting to Vogt. Allvoices CMO Aki Hashmi was named general manager of the site, leading its day-to-day operations.

Vogt said the goal of the acquisition is to expand Datran's technological capabilities by providing clients with a platform to develop, execute and manage crowd-sourced sites.

“Our goal here is to own the technology [and] provide the [crowd-sourcing platform], if needed, for those customers in the enterprise solutions group” who will be able to license the technology, said Vogt.

He added that Datran's clients will be able to market to the Allvoices audience through the site's content distribution system. Vogt said the company will expand the site's categories beyond news to those relevant to its clients.

Datran clients include Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. of America, NBC and digital agency Razorfish.

Vogt said Datran's clients will not have access to Allvoices members' information and will not be able to market to those consumers outside of distributing brand- or agency-generated content on the Allvoices site.

Financial terms of the deal, which closed April 29, were not disclosed.