This issue is my tenth annual round-up, feel free to take a look at the previous reviews for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016, and you’ll be amazed by how our industry has changed. Thank you for reading.
January: Muck Rack Expanded
Muck Rack acquired Irish company Ruepoint for an undisclosed sum, significantly expanding its European presence with approximately 500 customers and 100 staff. Cision appointed Guy Abramo as its new CEO, backed by Platinum Equity to strengthen market position. Onclusive launched AI-powered social media tools and Reputation unveiled major platform expansions. Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer revealed a deepening crisis of trust globally, with 60% reporting grievances towards institutions. ShopMy raised $USD 77.5 million in Series B funding, elevating its valuation to $USD 410 million amid predictions of 14.2% year-over-year growth in influencer marketing spending for 2025.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Muck Rack acquired Ruepoint; Medianet partnered with TVEyes
February: Cision Talked Debt
Egregious secured $USD 1 million in pre-seed funding led by Fuel Ventures and Oxford Capital to develop social media intelligence solutions combating AI-driven misinformation. Italian strategic communications firm Excellera Advisory Group launched Excellera Intelligence to provide data-driven insights using AI across media intelligence, reputation analysis, and legislative monitoring. Cision restarted debt talks with lenders following an impasse in January, with the company carrying $2.5 billion in debt. Product updates featured Cision and PRWeek’s 2025 Comms Report showing 84% of PR leaders reporting increased C-suite reliance on their expertise. Brandwatch, Pulsar, Muck Rack, Meltwater, Innodata, and Dataminr all announced platform enhancements including expanded Chinese data sources, social listening tools, Snapchat integration, and global partner networks.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Egregious raised $USD 1 million in pre-seed funding
March: Notified acquired
Equiniti (EQ) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Notified, creating an integrated end-to-end platform for investor relations, PR, and share registry solutions. ICCO’s World PR Report showed 67% of agency leaders maintaining positive market growth outlook, with 74% integrating AI tools into processes. Measurement remains a challenge with 56% of agencies still providing AVEs when requested. Wizikey introduced India’s first AI-powered unified media monitoring solution. CARMA expanded globally with a new Tokyo office as its 23rd worldwide location. CommsClarity Consulting strengthened advisory capabilities through strategic partnerships, and GRIN unveiled social listening and affiliate hub tools.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Equiniti (EQ) agreed to acquire Notified
April: Dataminr and Cision pick up funding
April brought significant funding activity with Dataminr obtaining a $USD 100 million convertible loan from Fortress Investment Group for AI development, specifically mentioning ReGenAI capabilities. Cision secured $USD 250 million in new financing, extending debt maturities to 2030 and beyond under new CEO Guy Abramo’s leadership. Agorapulse acquired Mention in a social media management consolidation move, describing it as an alignment of complementary visions and products. The UK Government Communication Service unveiled Assist, a generative AI tool for government communicators, deployed to over 2,700 members with code released on GitHub. Meltwater unveiled platform updates, while Pureprofile launched AI-powered social listening tools.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Agorapulse acquired Mention; Cision sold HARO to Featured.com
May: AI Chat Assistants Arrive
Publicis Groupe made a major investment acquiring Captiv8 for a reported $USD150 million, complementing its previous Influential purchase and bringing 15 million creators across 120 countries. The acquisition reflects broader industry trends with brands like Unilever planning to shift up to 50% of marketing budgets to social media. Crowdfire unexpectedly shut down after 15 years, citing rising API costs and infrastructure expenses. News That Matters launched in India as an AI-powered mobile monitoring app offering real-time tracking from 4,000 sources. Major platforms introduced conversational AI interfaces, with Meltwater unveiling Mira, Cision launching AI Assistant in CisionOne, and Brandwatch adding Bluesky as a source.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Publicis Groupe acquired Captiv8
June: Khoros Acquired
IgniteTech acquired Khoros, the digital customer engagement and social listening platform serving 2,000 companies including a third of the Fortune 100. Reddit unveiled two AI-powered advertising tools at Cannes: Reddit Insights for social listening and Conversation Summary Add-ons showing 19% increase in clickthrough rates. AMEC Summit in Vienna released Barcelona Principles v4.0, maintaining that AVEs remain invalid whilst adding clarity to measurement standards. WPP launched Open Intelligence, described as the industry’s first Large Marketing Model aggregating data from 350+ partners. TVEyes launched Insight, a next-generation monitoring suite for audio and video intelligence. ReadPartner announced expanded capacity to process over 5,000 trends daily.
Key Deals & Partnerships: IgniteTech acquired Khoros; APO Group partnered with BytesView Analytics
July: A new focus on AI Search
AI-powered search continued mainstream adoption, with Yext’s research identifying six distinct “search archetypes” highlighting how consumers strategically switch between platforms based on intent. Innovation dominated the landscape with several platforms unveiling sophisticated AI solutions, from NewsWhip’s risk monitoring agent to BuzzStream’s ListIQ media list-builder, showcasing the industry’s commitment to more effective communications strategies. Market expansion accelerated with Hypetap bringing its intelligence tool to Europe and newcomers like Signal Raptor democratising media visibility for smaller businesses.
August: Sprout bought Newswhip
The month’s standout deal saw Sprout Social acquire Irish predictive analytics specialist NewsWhip for $USD 55 million in cash, with potential performance-based earnouts up to $USD 10 million over two years. August saw a flurry of new AI search analytics product announcements around Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), with Meltwater launching GenAI Lens for visibility across AI assistants and LLMs including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Muck Rack followed with Generative Pulse, whilst both Brandwatch and Talkwalker announced partnerships with Trajaan to deliver AI search data. Notified partnered with Profound to help brands monitor how GlobeNewswire press releases are referenced by AI chatbots. Perplexity launched Comet Plus, a revenue-sharing programme compensating publishers when AI agents use their content. Product updates included Medianet’s Real Impact Score metric, Meltwater’s partnership with Dow Jones Factiva, and Sprout Social’s TikTok Listening capabilities.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Sprout Social acquired NewsWhip; Notified partnered with Profound for AI visibility monitoring; Meltwater partnered with Dow Jones for Factiva access; Brandwatch and Talkwalker partnered with Trajaan
September: Signal AI is Funded
September saw significant investment activity with Signal AI securing $USD 165 million in growth-equity investment led by Battery Ventures, which will hold a majority stake to support strategic M&A plans and expansion across the US, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Sprinklr reported steady growth with Q2 fiscal 2026 revenue of $USD 212 million, up 8% year-over-year, and appointed Scott Millard as Chief Revenue Officer. Cision and Dow Jones settled their contract dispute, resolving litigation that originated when Cision suspended payments on a $USD 173.6 million eight-year exclusive content agreement. Deutsche Börse pioneered social media integration in market surveillance through Stockpulse collaboration. Product launches included Notified’s Content OS platform, PR Newswire’s Amplify platform, CisionOne’s enhanced Instant Insights dashboards, and YouScan’s Spaces feature. FGS Global appointed Aaron Kwittken as Global Head of Intelligence & Engagement.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Signal AI secured $165 million investment; Cision and Dow Jones settled contract dispute
October: Dataminr acquires ThreatConnect
Dataminr announced plans to acquire ThreatConnect for $USD 290 million, combining AI-powered real-time public data monitoring with internal threat intelligence platforms. Hootsuite confirmed layoffs of approximately 20% of its global workforce as part of strategic restructuring, marking its latest in a series of reductions. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a $USD 5.7 million contract with Zignal Labs for real-time social media monitoring. Product launches included Meltwater’s 2025 Year-End Product Release featuring GenAI Lens and unified dashboards, Later’s EdgeAI predictive intelligence engine, and YouScan’s Insights Copilot 3.0. PRophet’s UNICEPTA branding returned as the entire PRophet brand shifted to the UNICEPTA name.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Dataminr announced acquisition of ThreatConnect
November: Semrush sold to Adobe
Adobe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Semrush in an all-cash transaction representing a 77% premium, bringing generative engine optimisation and PR software platform Prowly into Adobe’s ecosystem. NLA Media Access launched Newsworthy, enabling PR professionals to purchase article-level engagement metrics from over 480 UK titles for the first time, with publishers receiving 50% of earnings. AMEC celebrated Measurement Month with global activities, Global Communication Effectiveness Awards in London, and AI Day exploring artificial intelligence’s impact on communication measurement. Cision announced its services are now available to US government agencies through GSA Schedule. Sprout Social delivered strong Q3 results with $USD 115.6 million revenue and record 11.9% operating margin, highlighting NewsWhip integration success. Product launches included Sprout Social’s Trellis AI agent and Brandwatch’s expanded Iris platform capabilities.
Key Deals & Partnerships: Adobe acquired Semrush
December: Cision acquires Trajaan
Cision has announced its acquisition of Trajaan. The purchase builds on the August 2025 Brandwatch-Trajaan partnership, bringing the search intelligence platform fully into the Cision ecosystem to unify consumer, search and generative AI insights. This year has been dominated by AI search, and Cision’s acquisition indicates one of the core competitive battlegrounds we’re likely to see in 2026.
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