Salesforce.com this week officially announced its intention to acquire Buddy Media in a cash and stock deal valued at $689 million. The deal will include $467 million in cash, $184 million in stock as well as $38 million in vested Salesforce options. The deal is set to close in the Salesforce’s fiscal third quarter.
During a Monday AM conference call to discuss the deal, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff described the Buddy Media buy as the largest acquisition to date at Salesforce.
“We’re doubling down on the Salesforce marketing cloud,” Benioff said. “We absolutely believe that Buddy Media coupled with our incredible acquisition last year of Radian6 will help us capture more of this fast growing market and accelerate our growth.”
Saleforce aquired social CRM vendor Radian6 for $326 million in March of 2011. Benioff said that by combining Buddy Media with Radian6, the Salesforce marketing cloud will become a clear choice for brands to listen and engage with their social marketing programs.
“For the first time CMOs will be able to manage the entire social media marketing lifecycle in one unified platform of customer information,” Benioff said. “With this acquisition, Salesforce is perfectly positioned to capitalize in another high growth multi-billion dollar opportunity.”
In terms of why Benioff chose Buddy Media as opposed to any other vendor in the space, he noted that his company went through a rigorous vetting process. He said that he had reviewed every company in the space and personally met with 10 CEOs of major companies. In his view, Buddy Media was the clear number one in the space.
Read the full story at EnterpriseAppsToday:
Salesforce Expands Social Media Platform with Buddy Media Acquisition
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
