Microsoft Gets Social, Buys Yammer

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The largest software provider in the world just became that much more social.

Microsoft (MSFT) acquired Yammer Inc. for $1.2 billion in cash -- its biggest acquisition since Skype, which it bought for $8.5 billion last year. The transaction was first reported in mid-June by various news outlets.

"The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, said in a press release announcing the deal. "Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft's growing portfolio of complementary cloud services."

"When we started Yammer four years ago, we set out to do something big," said David Sacks, Yammer's current CEO, who will report to Microsoft Office Division President Kurt DelBene. "We had a vision for how social networking could change the way we work. Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we'll need to scale and innovate."

Yammer, which has more than 5 million users, will complement some of the more traditional Microsoft Office offerings, such as SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.

Shares of Microsoft dropped 3.13% to $29.74 on Monday.

--Written by Nathalie Pierrepont in New York.

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