Lithium Technologies, which sells white label social networking tools to businesses, has bought up social media monitoring startup Scout Labs. Reports last week put the purchase price at between $20 million and $25 million. Lithium’s platform lets businesses set up online communities for their customers, including discussion boards, blogs and chats, and the company now says it will add social media monitoring and analytics to those offerings. Lithium’s rationale for the acquisition, according to the release: “This will give our clients the most detailed picture available of their customers’ social behavior – giving them a competitive advantage as they plan and execute social media marketing and support programs.” Scout Labs launched its service only last February, but had already lined up high-profile customers, including Disney (NYSE: DIS), Coca-Cola and Motorola (NYSE: MOT). The company had raised $4 million in a funding round last October, while Lithium has raised $39 million.

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