Microsoft Yammer Acquisition Gets Official

The rumors were true: Microsoft is indeed buying business-centric social networking site Yammer for $1.2 billion, or $200 million more than early rumors indicated. A presumably pleased Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a prepared statement that “the acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love” and that “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.” Buying Yammer gives Microsoft a strong social networking component to its ubiquitous Office suite since Microsoft now inherits more than 5 million Yammer users across more than 200,000 different companies. In fact, Microsoft is strongly touting Yammer’s ability to mesh with its other services, noting that it “plans to accelerate Yammer’s adoption alongside complementary offerings from Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.” 

Microsoft In Talks To Buy Yammer

Yammer is a social network that’s been going strong since 2008, currently being used by more than 200,000 companies across the earth including Ebay and Ford, allowing corporations to speak to one another as well as inside their own collectives. The CEO and cofounder of Yammer, mister David Sacks, has been rumored to be pushing the deal through before he throws himself a 40th birthday party complete with a “who’s who of A-list tech.”


Given that the source speaking with Business Insider on the subject has noted that the supposed party would take place at the Fleur de Lys mansion in LA, that 18-century costumes are required, and that Snoop Dogg will be presiding over the celebration, we’re going to need a big cup of salt to swallow this one. That said, it’s still quite possible that Microsoft and Yammer are indeed working on a deal between themselves.


Check out the Yammer website here.

Apple’s Failed Social Network Ping To Be Shuttered This Fall

Apple plans to shutter its failed social network Ping later this year, a recent report claims. Apple unveiled Ping in September 2010, and while many Apple pundits seemed enthusiastic about a music sharing and discovery service that might keep iTunes users browsing through iTunes longer and encourage them to purchase music more often, consumers weren’t quite as impressed. After a few attempts to remind users that Ping still existed, Apple gave up on the service for the most part and it has sat idle for some time. With the next major iTunes release this fall, Apple will finally shutter the service completely, AllThingsD reports, and the Cupertino-based company will instead rely on Twitter and Facebook integration for the time being to sate users’ social networking needs.