Twitter acquires Namo Media & enters talks with SoundCloud as Secret Service seeks sarcasm detector

Twitter has acquired Namo Media, and will work with the mobile native ad start-up to bring unobtrusive adverts to users, allowing developers to monetise their apps in a more seamless way.

This follows the acquisition of MoPub in September last year. Namo Media will now work with both in building their native ads platform for developers and publishers.

Against this backdrop, Twitter is also reportedly in talks with audio sharing website SoundCloud as the company seeks to expand its service to include music and audio sharing. The microblogging platform is currently looking at various billion dollar options that will allow this, including deals with music-streaming service Spotify and Pandora Media, the popular internet-radio provider.

The company has reportedly entered talks with SoundCloud, where users can upload, record and share their music with one other. Expansion into dealing with multi-media content has been something Twitter has been pursuing for some time, last year buying small Australian start-up company, "We Are Hunted."

Apple recently acquired headphones and music-streaming business Beats, and it seems Twitter could be looking to expand in a similar way.

Twitter is also under the spotlight of the US Secret Service, who reportedly wish to use software that can gage whether certain threats made on the social media platform are genuine or not through a sarcasm detector.' The agency is offering a contract for software that can "detect sarcasm and false positives."

The proposed software could also be able to collect information such as the users' emotions and an archive of old messages, making the ability to determine sarcasm just one of many features.

Ed Donovan, spokesman for the Secret Service, said: "Our objective is to automate our social media monitoring process. The ability to detect sarcasm and false positives is just one of 16 or 18 things we are looking at. We are looking for the ability to quantify our social media outreach. We aren't looking solely to detect sarcasm."

The software deal on offer will last for five years, with proposals being accepted until 9 June.

This article was originally published on 5 June 2014. It was updated on 6 June 2014 to reflect the acquisition of Namo Media.