Following weeks of speculation, Microsoft has announced it will purchase enterprise social networking start-up Yammer for $1.2 billion.
The deal marks Microsoft’s largest acquisition since the $8.5 billion Skype deal.
“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”
“Yammer operates like a gated Facebook: A business can set up a private network where employees can post announcements, share files, create events, swap messages and more,” reports CNNMoney. “It also offers more traditional corporate features like a content management system and an ‘extranet’ that businesses can use to communicate with outside contacts like customers and vendors.”
Microsoft is betting that corporate America is ready to integrate social networking tools with traditional office and enterprise tools.
“Yammer will become part of the Microsoft Office Division, run by Kurt DelBene, though the Yammer team will continue to report to [CEO David] Sacks,” reports AllThingsD in a related article. “The plan calls for Yammer to stick to its current track of developing its own service, while Microsoft pushes ahead to nudge further adoption alongside SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.”
Following weeks of speculation, Microsoft has announced it will purchase enterprise social networking start-up Yammer for $1.2 billion.
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