SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Radian6, the industry-leading social media monitoring platform, for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash acquired. The transaction is expected to be completed in salesforce.com's fiscal second quarter ending July 31, 2011, subject to customary closing conditions.

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Comments on the News

• "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."
• "Social media has made every business recognize the value of paying attention to the voice of the customer. Radian6's technology is built for the new norm of customer engagement - real time, two way conversations that includes social channels," said Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6. "Joining the salesforce.com team will allow Radian6 to grow faster to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding customer base."

Radian6 is the Market and Technology Leader in Social Media Monitoring and Engagement

Founded in 2006, Radian6 was created with the idea that companies need to monitor 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 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.

As many companies adopt social media to engage with their customers, Radian6's customer base is rapidly expanding. Leading global brands like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS use Radian6, along with more than half of the FORTUNE 100. Radian6 was chosen as a "leader" in independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc.'s "The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q3, 2010″ report, released in 2010. In the report, which evaluated the Radian6 Dashboard, as well as Radian6′s Engagement Console, Radian6 ranked above other platforms for functionality and was the only company to receive a 5.00 out of 5.00 score for product strategy and leading scores in market presence in both customers and financials.

Tracking Hundreds of Millions of Conversations across the Social Media Landscape with Radian6

Social media has exploded over the last few years, and the number of users on social networking sites has surpassed the number of people using email. Facebook has more than 500 million users, Twitter has more than 175 million users and LinkedIn has more than 100 million. With the explosive adoption of social media, many companies feel they have lost control of their brands and are not engaged with their customers and prospects on the social web.

Salesforce.com recognizes that the incredible adoption of social media has brought about a massive shift in the industry, the shift to Cloud 2. The first phase of cloud computing was about leveraging technologies that were low cost, fast and easy to use on your desktop. Cloud 2 represents the next generation of cloud computing, one that is inherently social, mobile and open. 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.  

Radian6 Will Deliver Insights from the Public Social Web to Salesforce.com's Products

As the cloud computing leader, 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 bring the heart of the public social web into salesforce.com's applications and platform including:

• Sales and Service Cloud: Social media monitoring and engagement has emerged as the requirement for any brand and customer engagement strategy, helping companies join conversations about their brands and stay connected to their customers and prospects. By combining Radian6's social media monitoring and engagement platform with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, companies will be able to keep customer success at the center of their business with real-time social intelligence.
• Salesforce Chatter: 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. Chatter feeds will no longer just contain the activity happening within the walls of a company, but will be filled with real time insights from fans on Facebook pages, followers on Twitter, comments on blog posts and more.
• Force.com Platform: 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.

Details Regarding the Proposed Radian6 Acquisition

Salesforce.com will acquire Radian6 for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash acquired. In addition, approximately $10M in stock and $4M in cash will be issued to founders and will be subject to vesting conditions over two years. The acquisition has been approved by Radian6's board of directors and stockholders and is expected to close in the second quarter of salesforce.com's fiscal 2012, ending July 31, 2011, subject to customary closing conditions.

Additional details and information about the terms and conditions of the acquisition will be available in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed by salesforce.com with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Financial Impact of Proposed Radian6 Acquisition

Q1 FY12: The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on salesforce.com's fiscal first quarter results.  The company is not updating its fiscal first quarter guidance.

Q2 FY12: The acquisition is expected to increase revenues by approximately $5 million and to reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately $0.08 in the quarter ending July 31, 2011.

FY12: The acquisition is expected to increase revenues by approximately $45 to $50 million and to reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately $0.11 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 FY12 revenue in the range of approximately $2.075 billion to $2.1 billion, and FY12 non-GAAP EPS in the range of approximately $1.24 to $1.27.    

Non-GAAP EPS excludes the impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based compensation, amortization of purchased intangibles from acquisitions, and the amortization of debt discount on the company's convertible senior notes, as well as the tax consequences associated with these items.  The financial impact of the acquisition on a GAAP basis cannot be estimated until the allocation of the purchase price is completed following the closing of the acquisition. However, salesforce.com currently expects that the dilutive impact of the acquisition to EPS will be significantly greater on a GAAP basis than a non-GAAP basis.

About Radian6

Radian6 is the leading social media monitoring, engagement and insights platform with over 2,400 customers including Dell, Kodak, PepsiCo, and UPS, as well as many of the world's leading public relations and marketing agencies. The first-ever Radian6 User Conference, Social 2011 <http://www.social2011.com/> , is being held in Boston on April 7 and 8. For information on Radian6 visit  www.radian6.com.

About Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that has transformed the way companies collaborate and communicate. Salesforce.com is leading the effort to bring Cloud 2, the next paradigm for computing, to the enterprise by offering its customers the social collaboration, mobility and openness that are the hallmark of this new world. The company's platform and application services include:

• Salesforce Chatter, a private social network for your enterprise
• The Sales Cloud, for sales force automation and contact management
• The Service Cloud, for customer service and support solutions
• The Jigsaw Data Cloud, for ensuring data integrity and quality
• The Force.com platform, for custom application development
• Heroku, for building social and mobile apps in Ruby
• The AppExchange, the world's leading marketplace for enterprise cloud computing applications

Salesforce.com offers the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing. As of January 31, 2011, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 92,300 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.  Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These statements are based on the current expectations and beliefs of salesforce.com's management and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.  The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding the acquisition of Radian6 and other agreements with Radian6 and its shareholders and employees, including the pending share purchase transaction under which a subsidiary of salesforce.com will purchase all of the equity interests in Radian6, whether salesforce.com and Radian6 will be able to consummate the acquisition in a timely manner or at all, the anticipated financial impact of the acquisition if it closes and the development and integration plans and expectations after the acquisition.  These statements are not guarantees of future performance, involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate.  Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed herein.  The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: the risk that salesforce.com may not realize the anticipated benefits of the Radian6 acquisition, the risk that salesforce.com may not retain the customer relationships of Radian6, the inability to retain key employees of the acquired business, the inability to successfully integrate the acquired technologies or operations, and unexpected delays in the consummation of the acquisition.  For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011.

Salesforce.com will host a conference call with investors at 8:30 AM (ET) / 5:30 AM (PT), Mar. 30, 2011, to discuss this transaction. A live dial-in is available domestically at +1- 866-901-7332/ passcode #55345588. International callers may dial +1-706-902-1764/ passcode #55345588. A live web webcast of the event will be available on the salesforce.com Investor Relations website at http://www.salesforce.com/company/investor/. A replay will be available at +1-800-642-1687 or +1-706-645-9291 / passcode 55345588 until midnight (ET) Apr. 13, 2011.

Copyright (c) 2011 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com