Hootsuite Acquires Heyday for $48 Million

Vancouver-based Hootsuite lets companies track social-network channels to see what people are saying about their brands and respond in real time. Hootsuite bought Montreal-based Heyday because companies have expanded their use of social media beyond marketing to include commerce and one-on-one messaging, said Tom Keiser, Hootsuite's chief executive. "You really can do the entire customer life cycle now, all the way through selling and support, on the social and messaging platforms," Mr. Keiser said. "With the acquisition of Heyday, we get a really strong base of AI capabilities that we'll be able to use in social care and across the other aspects of our business," he added, referring to customer service via social media. The deal is Hootsuite's second acquisition this year, following its January purchase of Sparkcentral, a provider of digital customer-support software-as-a-service.