We’re delighted – but a bit tired – after yesterday’s big finale for Social Media Week. As we were hosting a really exciting panel discussion on social sharing in Facebook London, news went out that Betapond had acquired iPlatform, the UK’s first Facebook preferred marketing developer (PMD).

It caused quite a splash. Even London Mayor Boris Johnson weighed in:

“I was delighted to learn of iPlatform’s acquisition by Betapond. That a Tech City start-up company like iPlatform has enjoyed such a prolific rise in the sector confirms that London’s burgeoning tech hub is not only a world leader but can also be considered world class.”

As iPlatform’s team joins forces with us, we’re really excited about what this means for our clients and partners. Our combined team will offer more depth of expertise in Facebook development, more scale in our resources, and a bigger footprint in London – the world capital of marketing innovation.

We’ve been talking with iPlatform, based in London’s fantastic Tech City, for some time and we found that their vision and ambition for what brands can achieve with Facebook really complemented our own. We’ve always been impressed with their track record: building the first Facebook Credits integration for voting with work for Big Brother, great work with the English FA, with the Economist, Facebook, Google and a host of other exciting, progressive brands. Now, together, our team puts that experience to work with our own. We’ll be able to handle even bigger projects, more often, offer unrivalled expertise at the edge of innovation in Facebook marketing and data strategy.

iPlatform came about when Joshua March and Dan Lester helped to shape the Facebook developer community here in London with their early involvement with the Facebook Developer Garage and have built a fantastic product spinoff in Conversocial. We found in Josh and Dan people who were as passionate about the transformative changes social media is making on marketing and customer relations as we are.

Josh blogged about iPlatform’s history and said about the deal:

as soon as Dan and I met them we were impressed. They were delivering large sophisticated social projects with major brands. They had raised money and had big global ambitions. In many ways they were what Dan and I would have worked to make iPlatform become had we not decided to focus on Conversocial instead. There was great chemistry between the iPlatform and Betapond teams, and we believed in their management vision. It was a natural fit; and we felt that iPlatform’s vision would be best met by joining with Betapond rather than going it alone.

And now, as shareholders in the combined entity, Dan and I will get to share in their combined vision and ambition.

So when it came time to announce the deal, there could be no better place than Facebook in London.

The story has gone around the world, with great coverage in TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Drum, City A.M., Allfacebook, Silicon Republic, IBTimes, London’s Evening Standard and Kernel.

We’re excited at what the future holds for us together. Back to work.