The leader in cloud based business management solutions, Salesforce.com (News - Alert) has announced its acquisition of social media monitoring experts Radian6 in a $276 million business deal. The acquisition of Radian6 will bolster Salesforce’s already strong presence in the business networking space.
With the deal, Salesforce will gain access to social media monitoring tools already in use by many of the largest companies in the United States. The company’s portfolio includes giants like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak (News - Alert), Molson Coors, Pepsico and UPS.
“With Radian6, Salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring,” said Marc Benioff (News - Alert), chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com. “We see this as a huge opportunity. Not only will this acquisition accelerate our growth, it will extend the value of all of our offerings.”
Radian6’s products portfolio includes a number of tools that help companies track and analyze their social media presence and engagements that let them actively pursue their followers and fans. Social media has become a vital component to any customer development strategy in an increasingly connected world. By tracking conversations occurring in real-time, Radian6 users can actively engage in online discussions that affect their public image and enhance service to their customer base.
“Social media has made every business recognize the value of paying attention to the voice of the customer. Radian6’s technology is built for the new norm of customer engagement - real time, two way conversations that includes social channels,” said Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6. “Joining the salesforce.com team will allow Radian6 to grow faster to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding customer base.”
The integration of Radian6’s software offerings with the Salesforce.com model will allow users to gather social intelligence for sales and service, enhance the “chatter” applications to include feedback and comments for fans and followers, and give developers using the Force.com platform access to Radian6’s Social Media tools when building new applications.
Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Janice McDuffee