Salesforce goes social with Buddy Media buy

Business software company Salesforce has confirmed that it will buy Buddy Media for nearly US$700-million in cash and shares.

According to The Next Web, that means it’ll be forking as much as it generated in sales in the first quarter of this year for the social media campaign specialist.

It’s also a little lower than the US$800-million AllThingsD predicted Salesforce would pay towards the end of May.

Founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneur Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media helps 1 000 plus companies — including big names like HP, Mattel and Ford — maintain their social presences.

Salesforce reckons that the acquisition means that its Marketing Cloud will become “the platform of choice for brands to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programmes”.

“Salesforce.com now has the number one players in social listening and marketing – Radian6 and Buddy Media,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “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.”

Salesforce will pay approximately US$467-million in cash, US$184-million in salesforce.com common stock, and US$38-million in vested salesforce.com options and restricted stock units for Buddy Media. The deal is expected to go through in the final quarter of 2012.