Microsoft completes $1.2B acquisition of Yammer

YammerSoft is a go, folks.

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Less than one month after officially confirming numerous reports that it was going to buy enterprise social network Yammer, Microsoft today announced that the $1.2 billion deal is in the bag.

“Today, we are pleased to announce that all closing conditions for Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer have been met, and the deal is completed,” Microsoft senior director of Office Jared Spataro said this morning. “We look forward to accelerating the adoption of Yammer’s standalone service and enhancing the social capabilities in Microsoft’s communication and collaboration offerings.”

The deal was one of the worst kept secrets in recent Silicon Valley history, as multiple reports surfaced weeks in advance of Microsoft’s official June 25 confirmation.

While no one was surprised by the buy, many were left stumped as to why Microsoft would shell out one billion-plus in cash for a company that essentially makes a Facebook clone for internal corporate communication. Some even suggested that the purchase signaled that the Redmond-based software behemoth was not only admitting the defeat of SharePoint, its own collaboration tool, but also overpaying just to play catch-up.

“SharePoint has failed to deliver the enterprise social capabilities that organizations are increasingly demanding,” Benjamin Mestrallet, founder of enterprise portal platform eXo, told VentureBeat.

Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain believes, however, that the deal underscores the reality of today’s social enterprise. “Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer is a clear indicator that cloud and collaboration solutions are an assumed part of the enterprise landscape,” he said. “Over the coming months, the integration of Yammer and social collaboration tools with hybrid cloud data and file strategies will propel businesses into ever more efficient models of doing business.”

Founded in 2008, Yammer raised $142 million in funding before being acquired by Microsoft. The product has roughly 5 million corporate customers, including 85 percent of the Fortune 500.