For the first time in a long time, Microsoft is the tech company stealing all the headlines, and it’s doing it again this week, making its rumored $1-billion acquisition of Yammer official Monday.
Make it $1.2 billion to be exact. Microsoft said in its announcement that Yammer, an enterprise social network provider, will join the Microsoft Office Division.
Microsoft said Yammer, which launched in 2008, already has 5 million corporate users, including employees at 85% of Fortune 500 companies. The Redmond, Wash., company said it plans to continue Yammer’s growth by adopting it alongside Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.
“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, in a press statement. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”
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Following the deal, which, as Microsoft points out, is still pending regulatory approval, Yammer will continue to be led by its CEO, David Sacks, who said Yammer’s goal is to change how people work through social networking.
“Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we’ll need to scale and innovate,” Sacks said in a statement.
Initially reports of the acquisition began earlier this month after a Twitter user tweeted that she’d overheard people at a San Francisco coffee shop say Microsoft would be buying Yammer.
via Microsoft to buy Yammer for $1.2 billion – Chicago Tribune.