Microsoft today (25th/June/2012) confirmed the purchase of the San Francisco-based enterprise social networking company with office social network site Yammer for a whopping $1.2bn in cash.
This was a move to help Microsoft woo its businesses with Facebook like tools that help employees collaborate in the workplace. Yammer has a network of 200,000 corporate clients and is used by firms including the motor giant Ford and the business services firm Deloitte.
Yammer will become part of Microsoft’s Office division and the team will continue to report to current Yammer Chief Executive Officer David Sacks, the companies said today in a statement.
Yammer's chief executive David Sacks said: "When we started Yammer four years ago, we set out to do something big.
"We had a vision for how social networking could change the way we work. Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we'll need to scale and innovate."
Microsoft hopes the acquisition will make its range of software products more appealing.
Last year it bought the communications business Skype and is integrating it into its products, including its Office software which contributed 60% of its profits last year.
Other corporate-social features like Salesforce.com Inc.’s Chatter product, as well as startups such as Jive Software Inc. and Asana Inc., run by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
