Salesforce.com To Acquire Radian6 for about $326 mln

Cloud computing firm Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) said it agreed to acquire Radian6, a social media monitoring platform, for about $326 million in cash and stock deal, a move that will help Salesforce to effectively market its cloud-based products.

Salesforce will pay $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash acquired,

The proposed acquisition of Radian6 will accelerate the enterprise's shift to Cloud 2 by helping companies better manage the social interactions taking place both inside and outside their companies, Salesforce said in a statement.

In addition, Salesforce will pay about $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash to founders and will be subject to vesting conditions over two years.

With Radian6, salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring, said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. 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.

Salesforce.com sees companies looking for an open, scalable and trusted social media monitoring platform that is completely integrated with their customer information. With the combination of Salesforce and Radian6, companies will be able to keep customer success at the center of their business with real-time social intelligence.

Meanwhile, Radian6 and salesforce.com will create the bridge between public social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and online communities, and Salesforce Chatter, the private, secure social network for the enterprise.

In addition, developers will be able to build apps that tap into the power of Radian6, putting the social web into everything they build. In such a dynamic market, this acquisition will present a huge opportunity for salesforce.com to extend its developer and partner ecosystem with technology not available anywhere else.

Founded in 2006, Radian6 monitors the social web in order to effectively join conversations with customers and prospects. Radian6's unique technology captures hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and online communities, and provides actionable insights in real-time.

Radian6's customer base includes AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS.

Radian6's products include a monitoring platform designed to help companies track and analyze their social media efforts, as well as an engagement platform to help companies connect with individuals and communities online.

The intelligence gained from these conversations has become critical in helping companies better market and sell to prospects, service customers and understand what's being said about their brand, products, competitors and services.

The acquisition is expected to increase Salesforce's revenues by about $5 million and to reduce non-GAAP earnings by approximately 8 cents a share in the second quarter.

Also, the acquisition is expected to increase revenues of Salesforce by approximately $45 to $50 million and to reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately 11 cents a share in the year ending January 31, 2012.

To reflect the impact of the acquisition, the company is updating the full-year guidance it provided on February 24, 2011. Specifically, the company now expects fiscal 2012 revenue in the range of about $2.075 billion to $2.1 billion, and non-GAAP earnings in the range of approximately $1.24 to $1.27 a share.

The deal is expected to be completed in Salesforce's fiscal second quarter ending July 31, 2011, subject to customary closing conditions.

Shares of Salesforce closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $127.40 on the NYSE.