Meltwater, a global provider of media intelligence and social analytics, agreed to acquire Linkfluence, a French SaaS company using artificial intelligence to algorithmically mine social media for consumer insights, from private equity firms Karista, Hera Capital, Kreaxi, Sigma Gestion, Tikehau and Ring Capital for $59.7m. "We share the same vision of the future as Meltwater of bringing AI-enabled consumer insights to global brands through social listening. There has never been more data available to more companies, and the winners of tomorrow will be the brands that understand their customers at the speed of the web by using the internet as an important source for leading indicators. Joining forces with Meltwater will bring tremendous value to our clients by enabling us to leverage their fantastic assets and strengthen our innovation capabilities," Guillaume Decugis, Linkfluence CEO.