Room 214 acquires social network firm

BOULDER – Digital-marketing agency Room 214 of Boulder has acquired a majority interest in SocialEngine, an online social network company in Los Angeles.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SocialEngine, a graduate of TechStars in 2011, will maintain its name, but move its headquarters to Boulder. It will be housed in Room 214’s offices in Boulder.

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Room 214’s co-founders Jason Cormier and James Clark will serve as co-presidents of SocialEngine. A full-time software developer will move from LA to Boulder.

SocialEngine’s three previous co-owners will maintain a minority ownership sate in the company and will remain in Los Angeles.

SocialEngine plans to hire “a handful” of engineers in 2014 as a result of the purchase, Cormier said.

SocialEngine offers software that provides companies and individuals their own social network capabilities. The SocialEngine software is an alternative to well-known social networks such as Facebook, Cormier said. National brands such as Shell, Mastercard and Kaplan University are customers of SocialEngine.

Brad Feld, a co-founder of startup incubator TechStars and managing director at The Foundry Group, a venture capital firm in Boulder, used the software for the Startup Revolution project at http://hub.startuprev.com/.

SocialEngine sells the software to customers or maintains it for them and charges them a monthly fee, Cormier said.

Room 214 workers became interested in finding social network software and companies after hearing from clients who said they were sick of using Facebook and dealing with its restrictions, Cormier said. Workers can help clients build their social communities with a proprietary software, which helps Room 214 differentiate itself from other digital marketing companies, he said.