Apple Buys Real-Time Access to Twitter Feed With Topsy

Apple Inc. purchased data-analytics firm Topsy Labs Inc., giving the world’s most valuable company new tools to spot trends as they emerge on Twitter Inc.’s social network.

Apple paid more than $200 million for Topsy, said people with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The San Francisco-based startup’s service is used by companies to analyze consumer sentiment on Twitter, be it responses to TV shows or politics. Topsy is one of a few partners that has real-time access to the messages that roll across the microblogging service, and can search through every tweet published since 2006.