Klout's Joe Fernandez: How a Math Mediocrity Became a Social Ranking Guru
By Claire Suddath February 25, 2014
Joe Fernandez knows how much you’re worth—on Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR), at least.
He is the co-founder and chief executive of Klout, a website and app that ranks people on a scale of 1 to 100 based on the influence they wield online. The Klout Score is determined by an algorithm that tracks how many social-media connections someone has and factors in such sources as Wikipedia along with other information that the company keeps under wraps. The six-year-old company analyzes more than 15 billion pieces of data every day and computes more than 100 million scores.
Trading in popularity has its benefits. Last week, Klout reportedly was bought by software maker Lithium Technologies (LTHU) for an estimated $100 million—re/code broke the story—but so far neither side has confirmed the deal.
Fernandez spoke with Bloomberg Businessweek just on the heels of the deal reports—he wouldn’t confirm them for us—about the philosophy behind the popularity ranking, the loneliness, and hunger that drove him to create Klout, and why sharing an office address with Twitter was a good thing. ...
they took it from this article - which did not have a symbol - probably because they are a private company about to do an IPO.
Reuters) - Marketing company Lithium Technologies is near a deal to buy social-media measurement business Klout, according to a report.
The deal, first reported by the technology news site Re/code, would marry Lithium's social-media focused customer-service business with Klout's analysis of brands' and individuals' social-media savvy. The price tag was at least $100 million in a mixture of cash and shares of Lithium, which like Klout is privately held, the report said.
It is unclear how big a return that would represent for Klout backers, who invested at least $40 million in the company, including a $30 million round in 2012. Backers include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which led that 2012 round; Institutional Venture Partners; Mayfield; and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O).
Lithium, founded in 2001, has raised more than $150 million from investors such as Shasta Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners, Benchmark, DAG Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. It is considered a candidate for a 2014 initial public offering.
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