Twitter Buys Keyword Bidding Platform AdGrok

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Twitter has purchased AdGrok for an undisclosed sum, the keyword bidding platform revealed on its blog today. While Twitter hasn't commented extensively on the acquisition, the deal appears to be a technology-and-talent buy that could ultimately help marketers better target Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends advertising.

In a brief email exchange with ClickZ News, Twitter spokesperson Matt Graves confirmed that AdGrok founders Argyris Zymnis and Matthew McEachen will join the company at its San Francisco headquarters. They will work "as part of our revenue engineering team," Graves said.

AdGrok is shutting down all operations by June 30. After that time, the San Francisco-based startup said business users' data can continue to be accessed through Google AdWords and Google Analytics.

TechCrunch first reported yesterday that the deal was in the works, citing a source that said Twitter would pay less than $10 million. It's Twitter's second notable acquisition in the last week, following the purchase of TweetDeck. Twitter paid $40 million for TweetDeck, a 15-person shop based in London, according to the Financial Times.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch is reporting that AdGrok CEO Antonio Garcia-Martinez has accepted a position at Facebook.