Microsoft buys Yammer for $1.2bn

MICROSOFT has bought the enterprise social networking firm Yammer, about a week after reports suggested that it would.

Earlier Microsoft refused to comment on the suggestions, but today in a press flurry it has proudly announced the deal, subject to regulatory approval, that will see it acquire the firm for $1.2bn in cash.

Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division and will be lead by current CEO David Sacks. Microsoft said that it will exist alongside products including SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.

"The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love," said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. "Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft's growing portfolio of complementary cloud services."

Kurt DelBene, President, Microsoft Office Division is keen with the addition and in a blog post explained just how it would improve enterprise social networking.

"The combination of Yammer, SharePoint and Office 365 will provide the most comprehensive and flexible solutions for enterprise social networking.

Over time, I see opportunity for exciting new scenarios by adding Yammer's stand-alone service alongside and integrated into our collaboration offerings with SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics and Skype," he said.

"I picture people being able to use Yammer to manage and expand their professional relationships, share and collaborate on Office documents, stay informed about content updates, and to seamlessly move from status updates and feeds into voice and video conversations."

Current Yammer users have been advised that their experience of the system will not change.