Salesforce has agreed to purchase social media marketing platform Buddy Media for nearly $689 million.
It was recently reported that the company would pay $800 million for the social media firm but the buy price is still an impressive sum of cash for a company that appears to be on a buying spree since 2011. In the last year Salesforce has also purchased collaboration company Stypi (May 2012) and social media monitoring platform Radian 6 (March 2011.
Buddy Media currently provides service to 1,000 of the world’s largest company’s. Among its partners are HP, Matte, L’Oreal and others.
In a blog post regarding the sale Buddy Media founder and CEO Michael Lazerow wrote:
“The idea behind the deal is simple. By combining Buddy Media with the rest of salesforce.com’s products, including Salesforce Radian6, the leading social media listening platform, we will be able to deliver the first comprehensive Marketing Cloud that will allow customers to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs.”
The terms of the deal including $467 million in cash, $184 million in Salesforce common stock and $39 million invested salesforce.com options and restricted stock units.
The purchase of Buddy Media will be completed by the end of Salesforce’s fiscal third quarter which ends October 31, 2012.
The space for social media marketing is no stranger to acquisitions this year after Oracle snatched up Vitrue for an impressive $300 million. Oracle is attempting to compete with Salesforce in the sales management space and apparently both company’s see social media opportunities as a major component for future successes.
