11 Jun Salesforce Acquires Buddy Media

Salesforce.com is aiming to complete their acquisition of Buddy Media for an estimated $689 million in cash and equity. Buddy Media is a social media marketing platform that debuted in 2007. Buddy Media originally set out as a tool to help chief marketing officers and agencies organize their teams in order to optimize their social media marketing programs. The platform lets customers publish content, place and optimize social advertising and measure the effectiveness of social media marketing programs. With the acquisition of Buddy Media, Salesforce.com is looking to capitalize on what Marc Benioff sees as a "massive opportunity." Buddy Media allows companies to connect with more than 1 billion customers across various social media formats such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Buddy Media has gained much recognition in the social media industry. Eight of the top 10 advertisers use its social media platform. Buddy Media has an estimated 1,000 customers, the most celebrated of which being Ford, Hewlett-Packard, L'Oreal, Mattel, IPG (Interpublic Group), Omnicom, Publicis and WPP. By combining Buddy Media, the world's leading social media marketing platform, with Radian6 by Salesforce, Salesforce.com delivers a Marketing Cloud that lets customers listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs. Put plainly, Salesforce is aiming to empower CMOs to direct the entire social marketing lifecycle.