Salesforce.com Makes Another 'Social Enterprise' Buy

Salesforce.com is acquiring Buddy Media, a developer of social media marketing software, in a move that continues its expansion into cloud-based marketing applications.

Salesforce.com is paying approximately $689 million in cash and Salesforce.com equity to buy New York-based Buddy Media, Salesforce.com disclosed early Monday.

Founded in 2007, Buddy Media offers a platform that businesses use to manage social media marketing programs. The software helps marketers publish content, place and optimize social media advertising, and measure the effectiveness of social media marketing programs, according to Salesforce.com

[Related: Salesforce's Benioff: Time To Bridge The 'Social Divide' ]

The Buddy Media acquisition complements Salesforce.com's March 2011 buyout of Radian6, a supplier of technology for monitoring social networks and capturing data from them. Both companies fit into the Salesforce.com vision of the "social enterprise" -- the increased use of social media technologies by businesses for external marketing and customer communications, and for delivering information to employees internally.

"Salesforce.com now has the No. 1 players in social listening and marketing -- Radian6 and Buddy Media," said Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, in a statement. "With [chief marketing officers] surpassing CIOs in [spending] on technology within the next five years, our marketing cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity."

Salesforce.com will combine Buddy Media with Radian6 to create what it called the "first comprehensive marketing cloud" system to help businesses "listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs."

Earlier this year, in another move that furthered the company's social enterprise strategy, Salesforce.com acquired Rypple, a developer of human capital management applications that leverage social media for recruiting employees, building teams and managing their performance.

Buddy Media has about 1,000 customers including Ford, Hewlett-Packard, L'Oreal and Mattel, as well as major marketing agencies such as Interpublic Group and Omnicon.

Salesforce.com is paying approximately $467 million in cash, $184 million in Salesforce.com common stock and $38 million in vested stock options and restricted stock to acquire Buddy Media, according to the company. The two companies expect to complete the acquisition during Salesforce.com's fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31.