Salesforce Acquires Radian6 for Social CRM
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) made a big move today to boost its social CRM and social media monitoring capabilities with an agreement to acquire Radian6 for $326 million in cash and stock.
Salesforce added Radian6 to its Service Cloud call center and customer service application earlier this month.
The acquisition, expected to close in Salesforce's fiscal second quarter ending July 31, will let the online CRM leader integrate Radian6's technology into all its products.
Salesforce said companies want social media monitoring integrated with their customer information, something the combined companies plan to do.
With Salesforce's Sales and Service Cloud, Radian6 will add “real-time social intelligence” and social media monitoring and engagement so companies can “join conversations about their brands and stay connected to their customers and prospects,” Salesforce said in a press release announcing the deal.
With Chatter, Salesforce's enterprise social networking and collaboration tool, Radian6 “will create the bridge between public social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and online communities, and Salesforce Chatter. … Chatter feeds will no longer just contain the activity happening within the walls of a company, but will be filled with real-time insights from fans on Facebook pages, followers on Twitter, comments on blog posts and more.”
Adding Radian6 to the Force.com development platform will let developers add social media monitoring capabilities to their apps.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement, “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.”
Five-year-old Radian6 “captures hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and online communities, and provides actionable insights in real time,” Salesforce said.
Radian6's products include a monitoring platform that helps companies track and analyze their social media efforts, and an engagement platform to help them connect with individuals and communities online.
Radian6 customers include AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, UPS and more than half of the Fortune 100.
The deal also includes an additional $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash that will be issued to Radian 6 founders and vested over two years. The acquisition has been approved by Radian6's board of directors.
Salesforce said the deal will add $45 to $50 million in revenue and reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately $0.11 in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2012.
For more on social CRM and social media monitoring, see Who is Leading in Social CRM? and Social Business Intelligence – What Is It, and Do You Need It?
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.
