Salesforce.com to acquire Buddy Media for $689 mn

Enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com today agreed to acquire Buddy Media, the five-year-old company that helps brands manage their presence on social networking sites, for about $689 million in a cash and stock deal.

New York-based privately owned Buddy Media enables the world's top brands and advertisers, including Ford, Hewlett Packard, L'Oreal and Mattel, to connect with more than a billion customers on Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites.

The Buddy Media platform allows customers to publish content, place and optimise social advertising and measure the effectiveness of social media marketing programs and allows customers to find out which content is driving the most engagement, test different strategies and understand which campaigns are delivering the greatest return on investment.

With 8 of the top 10 advertisers as its clients, Buddy Media is the leader in social media marketing. The company currently has nearly 1,000 customers, including major global brands and the world's largest marketing agency groups such as IPG (Interpublic Group), Omnicom, Publicis and WPP.

The company founded by Michael Lazero in 2007 has reportedly raised $90 million from investors including Roger Ehrenberg, Softbank Capital, European Founders Fund, Greycroft Partners, Ron Conway and Bay Partners.

Salesforce.com will pay approximately $467 million in cash and $184 million in salesforce.com common stock, and $38 million in vested salesforce.com options and restricted stock units.