By Daniel Hunter
Technology giant Apple have bought social media data analytics firm, Topsy Labs, which specialises in using data from Twitter to track customer sentiment.
Topsy is one of the few firms to have access to Twitter's entire data stream. It has recently created a searchable database of all tweets sent - more than 400 billion - since Twitter's launch.
Apple did not say how much it paid for the firm, but the Wall Street Journal which first reported the story put the figure at around $200m (£122m).
Topsy competes with firms like DataSift and Gnip to figure out who is influential on Twitter, what terms are trending, and the impact of specific Twitter campaigns.
It is Apple's second acquisition in recent weeks.
Last month, it announced it had bought Israeli firm PrimeSense, which specialises in making 3-D motion detection technology.
Join us on
Follow @freshbusiness
