Kana Software acquires social listening company Overtone

Kana Software, a service experience management technology provider, acquired Overtone, a maker of social media and customer listening platforms, on April 5.

The deal will allow Kana clients to understand and analyze customer sentiment, emerging issues and trends across social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, said Vikas Nehru, VP of product marketing at Kana.

“There were companies focused on monitoring or listening to social, but they weren't really backed by deep analytics,” said Nehru. “How do you derive insight from the data? Overtone does that well compared to all the other listening platforms.”

Overtone's platform helps businesses automate the reading and analysis of text and information from various customer interaction channels, including text messages, online chat and email, said Nehru. It also generates reports across channels, he added.

“Customer insight teams serve an integral function to provide insights to marketing, sales, e-commerce and customer service teams,” he said. “It's not about silos anymore. These teams need to come together to create an optimal customer experience.”

Overtone will retain its brand, said Nehru, adding that no layoffs will occur as a result of the acquisition.

“Absolutely not. We currently have 40 openings,” he said. “We grew from 170 employees last year to 350 today. We're in high growth mode.”

Craig Brennan, Overtone's president and CEO, will be integrated into the Kana management team, but it's “too early to know” who he will report to, said Nehru.

Last week, Salesforce.com agreed to acquire social listening technology provider Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.