The rumors are true, Microsoft has bought Yammer for $1.2 billion in cash. For those of you unfamiliar with Yammer, it is a social network platform built specifically for corporations. Businesses can set up a private network in which employees can post announcements, share files, create events, send messages, access a content management system, and use “extranet” which allows the business to keep in contact with customers and vendors.
Yammer currently has more than 5 million corporate users, in which 85% of employees work at Fortune 500 companies. Purchasing Yammer is Microsoft’s largest acquisition since Skype, which they bought last year for $8.5 billion. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO commented on the purchase: “The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love.Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”
Yammer will join Microsoft’s Office Division, which is led by President Kurt DelBene, and will still be led by its current CEO David Sacks. Yammer will join Skype, SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics, and Microsoft Office 365 as part of their Office Division.
It is unlikely that Yammer’s services will be integrated into Microsoft Office 13 as it is already far in development and a public beta is expected at some point in July. After the acquisition has gone throughout he customary closing conditions including a regulatory approval by the DOJ and FTC, we will be able to see how Microsoft implements Yammer into its products.