Salesforce finalized its $689 million acquisition of Buddy Media, paying $475 million in cash and 1.4 million common stock shares, according to an SEC filing.
The deal is the largest contract in the history of the mega-cloud software provider’s history.
Founded in 2007, Buddy Media has been connecting brands to their consumers and fans in a socially connected world since the early days when Facebook’s audience was a “mere” 20 million members. The company today works eight of the top 10 global advertisers in the world, including L’Oreal ,Virgin Mobile, and HP. The company manages engagement with more than a billion customers across Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms.
The sale fits salesforce.com’s recent shopping spree in the social media space, having bought Stypi, the collaboration tool company, last May, and Radian6, a monitoring platform for social media, in March of 2011.
“With the rapid growth in technology spending by CMOs projected over the next five years, our Marketing Cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com.
The sale was first announced last June, with the final paperwork filed this week.
Salesforce’s inclusion of Buddy Media creates a social powerhouse of considerable advantage in the $1.3 trillion social technologies market, Michael Lazerow, Buddy’s Media’s CEO, wrote in a blog about the finalization of the deal.
“Marketing is really the intersection of paid media (advertising), owned and earned media (PR, social publishing, content marketing, etc.), sales efforts and customer service,” Lazerow stated. “The largest platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, are offering solutions that bridge all of these functions. The combination of Buddy Media, Radian6 and salesforce.com presents a single, powerful partner who can make marketers heroes.”
But it was the specialness of salesforce.com that sealed the deal.
“Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is not just another executive, and Salesforce.com is not just another company,” Lazerow told Mashable. “It was clear that Marc had studied Buddy Media and the space we operate in. His questions were direct. And when he saw our software on his computer, he immediately got it.”
Following the finalization, shares of Salesforce rose 3.8 percent to $145.15, the highest since May 29, according to Bloomberg data.