It's Yammer Time for Microsoft: $1.2B Deal Confirmed

Microsoft said on Monday that it has agreed to acquire enterprise-based social network Yammer for $1.2 billion USD in cash.

Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division, led by division President Kurt DelBene, and the team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks.

"The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love," said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. "Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary     cloud services."

Microsoft said Yammer will continue to develop its standalone service while also maintaining its commitment to "simplicity, innovation and cross-platform experiences." But once the acquisition is completed, Microsoft will accelerate Yammer’s adoption alongside complementary offerings from Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/platform_as_a_service.-paas-cloud_computing-appscale-ssl_tunnel,2-252.html

"When we started Yammer four years ago, we set out to do something big," said Yammer CEO David Sacks. "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."

Yammer originally launched back in 2008, and has since accumulated more than 5 million corporate users, including employees at 85-percent of the Fortune 500. It's used for private communication within organizations, or between organizational members and pre-designated groups. Employees can join the secure, private social network for free which in turn makes it easy for companies to "convert a grassroots movement into a company-wide strategic initiative."

Yammer reports that more than 200,000 companies use its secure service worldwide including DHL, Shell, 7-Eleven, Capgermini, eBay, Nationwide and thousands more.