Salesforce.com, the world’s #1 CRM platform, and ExactTarget, a leading cloud marketing platform, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which salesforce.com will acquire ExactTarget in a transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, salesforce.com will commence a tender offer for all outstanding shares of ExactTarget for $33.75 per share, in cash. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.
Salesforce.com’s acquisition of ExactTarget will further its mission of being the world’s leading CRM platform–one that enables companies to transform how they connect with their customers across sales, service, and marketing. By combining ExactTarget’s leading digital marketing capabilities with salesforce.com’s leading sales, service and social marketing solutions, salesforce.com will create a world-class marketing platform across email, social, mobile and the web.
The dramatic increase in consumer and business use of social networks, mobile devices, and new digital technologies is causing a revolution in marketing, as budgets previously spent on traditional media are now moving to digital campaigns. Gartner estimates that by 2015 consumer technology companies will have switched one-third of their traditional marketing budgets to digital(1), and CMOs will outspend CIOs on information technology by 2017(2).
The combination of ExactTarget and salesforce.com will increase the value proposition that customers of both companies will receive. Salesforce.com customers–including many of the world’s largest and fastest growing organizations–will be able to extend their investments in sales, service and social marketing with access to the industry’s most comprehensive marketing automation solution. ExactTarget’s large and vibrant customer base–including many of the world’s largest consumer brands–will have access to new world-class social marketing capabilities, and will be able to leverage salesforce.com’s leading sales, service and platform solutions to transform their end-to-end customer experience.
(1 )Gartner, Inc. “Predicts 2013: Digital Marketing Imperatives for Consumer Technology Providers”, December 2012
(2) Gartner, Inc. “High-Tech Tuesday Webinar: Software Market Dynamics in EMEA in 2013 and Beyond”, October 2012
SOURCE salesforce.com
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