It’s official. CRM loves social as it looks to make actionable its vast data sets. The announced acquisition of Vitrue by Oracle a couple of weeks ago has been followed today by the $689 million purchase of Buddy Media by Salesforce.com.
Jeff Pashalides, Head of SaaS Advisory at Blackstone offfered his thoughts on the acquisition:
“Looks like a great deal for Salesforce. Not surprising, obviously, given the very specific rumors that surfaced recently.
It is interesting that two leaders in CRM have recently made big bets on Social Marketing, coming right on the heels of Facebook’s IPO. This is Salesforce’s biggest deal to date and a natural extension of what they already have with Radian6, their messaging around the social enterprise, and their belief in all things Facebook. And it increases their footprint in B2C.
Salesforce has been the most aggressive and smartest acquirer in the SaaS space – using M&A strategically to enter new markets and support innovation in their existing portfolio. They pay full prices for most of their acquisitions (including Buddy Media), but do a great job at integration and directly monetizing acquired businesses, as well as using M&A to fuel their branding efforts. Even with Buddy Media and Radian6, there are still plenty of opportunities for Salesforce to further develop its marketing offering, especially in the B2B space.”
