Salesforce.com Buys Radian6 for $326M

Salesforce.com will buy Radian6, a maker of social media monitoring software, in a deal valued at $326 million, Reuters reported. Radian6 has raised venture capital from investors including BDC Venture Capital, Brightspark Ventures and Summerhill Venture Partners.

PRESS RELEASE:
We have some big news to share: Effective March 30, 2011 Radian6 has entered into an agreement to be acquired by salesforce.com, and we expect the deal to close in early May, subject to customary closing conditions. Told you it was big news. We’d like share some of the vision, background and details.

Radian6 and salesforce.com share the belief that social media will play a large part in how organizations listen to and engage with their customers. We also believe that as engagement with clients becomes more and more social, there will be greater opportunities for products such as Radian6 and Salesforce to more closely integrate.

Salesforce.com is the leader in enterprise cloud computing and has transformed the way companies collaborate, communicate and share customer information. For more information on salesforce.com, please visit http://www.salesforce.com

So what does this mean for our customers, partners, friends and community?

Our plan is that Radian6 will continue to operate as an independent company. Clients will continue to work with Radian6 as they do today. Product innovation and progress that you have come to expect from Radian6 will continue.

Collaboration and community remain a priority for Radian6. We will continue to work to increase awareness of how social media is changing how businesses operate. Community engagement will continue to be a big part of how Radian6 learns and communicates with friends, partners and customers.

Our first user conference, Social 2011, is coming up next week in Boston on April 7 and 8. We hope you can join us there for exciting product updates and more.

We hope you share in our excitement in the possibilities that collaborations between salesforce.com, Radian6 and our community can bring. There are more details of the news included in the press release issued earlier today which can be found here. As always we welcome your comments and conversation.

Thanks for letting us share this with you.

Marcel