Microsoft buys Yammer in $1.2bn cash deal

The rumours were true: Microsoft has acquired business social networking firm Yammer in a 1.2bn cash deal announced on Monday.

The acquisition of Yammer adds best-in-class enterprise social networking to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services; world-class talent that knows how to deliver rapid innovation in the cloud; and a unique adoption model that appeals directly to end users, said Redmond in a statement.

Yammer, a messaging and microblog network with a lot of customers in the top end of enterprise, has a market Microsoft needs. Redmond has traditionally been shy of social networking, but Yammer could be a useful tool in to integrate into Windows 8 and other platforms — via redwolf.newsvine.com