Yammer – the first Twitter-competitor to fail to be Twitter – was just purchased by Microsoft, who announced the deal as if capturing a prized wild animal.
Yammer is an “enterprise microblogging platform” that is Twitter-like in its behavior and has been around about as long, without the breaks along the way. Microsoft announced this deal to snare Yammer; here’s what they said:
Dear Yammer Customer,
I am pleased to announce that Yammer has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Microsoft. After the close of the deal, Microsoft will continue to invest in Yammer’s freemium, stand-alone service, and the team will remain under my direction within the Microsoft Office Division. With the backing of Microsoft, our aim is to massively accelerate our vision to change the way work gets done with software that is built for the enterprise and loved by users.
As a Yammer customer, you will continue to get a secure, private social network—delivered with the same focus on simplicity, innovation, and cross-platform experiences. Over time, you’ll see more and more connections to SharePoint, Office365, Dynamics and Skype. Yammer’s expertise in empowering employees, driving adoption, and delivering rapid innovation in the cloud will not only continue to power our stand-alone service, but also anchor the communication and collaboration experiences in Office 365.
You can find more information in this press release and our blog post.
Sincerely,
David Sacks
Yammer CEO and Founder
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll