After a week of speculations, the Web-software maker Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) finally confirmed that it is acquiring the leading social media marketer, Buddy Media, for $689 million in a cash and stock deal. Just a few weeks ago the outspoken CEO of Oracle announced to buy another social media marketer, Vitrue for $300 million. Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) had also considered buying Buddy Media before it settled the deal with Vitrue.
Buddy media is the world’s leading social media marketing platform that advertises some of the top brands including L’oreal, HP, Ford, Mattel and over a 1000 other companies. It connects regularly with over a billion customers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest.
Salesforce last year acquired Radiant6, a social media monitoring company in a $326 million deal. The acquisition of Buddy Media is in line with the Salesforce.com’s ambition to become the dominant player in social media marketing. It also owns the other social media software products such as Jigsaw, Rypple, Chatter and Stypi.
“Social media has caused the biggest transformation in marketing since the Mad Men era, causing chief marketing officers to completely re-think their strategies,” said Marcel LeBrun, senior vice president of Salesforce Radian6’s social- media analysis platform in the statement. “By bringing together market leaders Radian6 and Buddy Media, we are doubling down on the Salesforce marketing cloud to provide chief marketing officers with the ability to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle.”
Salesforce says it is putting $467 million in cash, $184 million in stock, and $38 million in vested Salesforce options and restricted stock units to buy Buddy Media. The transaction is likely to be completed before the company’s third quarter ends on October 31, 2012.
Following the deal, Salesforce has raised its expectations for the fiscal 2013 revenues to about $2.99 billion to $3.03 billion. Salesforce expects the full-year profit to be $1.45 to $1.49 per share.
