Salesforce.com Snaps Up Buddy Media for $689 Million

In a move that further enhances its social CRM offerings, Salesforce.com announced today that it will acquire Buddy Media, a social media marketing platform, for $689 million.

Salesforce.com's decision to buy Buddy Media is an "interesting move" says Michael Fauscette, group vice president of software business solutions at IDC. "Buddy Media is very complementary to the Radian6 acquisition and helps build out a social marketing capability that Salesforce was lacking," Fauscette notes. "This move strengthens the overall SCRM story for Salesforce as well."

Founded in 2007, Buddy Media helps brands manage their Facebook presence. Its clients include large brands such as Carnival, HP, L'Oreal, and Mattel. The company's offerings include ProfileBuddy, a publishing platform that lets clients create and deploy customized interactive content on social networks like Facebook; ConversationBuddy, a platform and dashboard for managing discussions on social networks; ReachBuddy, which enables customers to integrate social content with their Web sites; and Conversion Buddy, a set of sharing buttons designed for e-commerce.

"Salesforce.com now has the number one players in social listening and marketing—Radian6 and Buddy Media," said Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com chairman and CEO, in a statement. "With CMOs surpassing CIOs in spend on technology within the next five years, our Marketing Cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity."

The deal is expected to be completed by October 31.

---

Related Articles

Salesforce.com Unveils Updated Customer Service Platform on Its Salesforce Tour in NYC (Video Interview)

President and Vice Chairman Keith Block touts improvements to analytics, app-building, and customer-engagement capabilities. Plus, an exclusive video interview with Stephanie Buscemi, senior vice president of Salesforce.com's Analytics Cloud

ExactTarget's Social Studio Combines Features of Radian6 and Buddy Media

New social interface is part of Salesforce.com's Exact Target Marketing Cloud.

Forrester Releases Wave Report on Social Media Marketing

Seven companies are named as top providers of social media marketing management.

Salesforce.com Unifies Social Acquisitions

Launch of Social.com app weds social listening and CRM contact data.

Infusionsoft Grows Its Social Business

Its acquisition of social marketing firm GroSocial adds to its SMB sales and marketing automation mix.

Salesforce.com Adds Social Analytics Partners to Marketing Cloud

New offering includes mix-and-match options from 20 vendors.

Social Media Experimentation to Shift to ROI Justification

Collaboration, social marketing have changed customer relationships.

Votigo Rolls out Saas-Based Social Marketing and CRM Suite

Platform includes promotions and conversation managers, analytics, and more

Salesforce.com Rumored to Be Acquiring GoInstant

Alleged buyout would continue vendor "war" for customer experience

Microsoft Rumored to Be Buying Yammer

Unconfirmed reports have the deal worth $1.2 billion.

HootSuite and HubSpot Join Forces

Partnership will tie social media activity to lead generation and campaign efforts

Oracle Acquires Collective Intellect

Software giant builds out deeper cloud social offerings

Oracle Acquires Cloud Marketing Platform Vitrue

The software maker that once dismissed cloud computing picks up another cloud vendor.

Salesforce.com Releases Chatter Messenger and Chatter Screensharing

New internal social networking apps expand business collaboration tools available in the cloud.

Salesforce.com Rolls Out Government Cloud

New offerings include the AppExchange for Government and a training program on cloud deployment.

Salesforce Acquires Radian6: The Morning After

B2B Social Demand Generation