Microsoft Acquires Yammer to Accelerate Enterprise Social Networking

Kurt DelBene

Last October, I posted a concept video showing Microsoft’s view on the future of productivity. The video envisions how mobile devices, social computing, interactive content, cloud computing and natural user interfaces will change the way we get things done at home, at work and at school.

In our personal lives, it’s obvious that social computing has made a huge impact in how we connect with information and each other. Businesses are just starting to take advantage of the benefits of social computing, and I believe it will redefine how we’ll work together in the years ahead.

Today, I am excited to announce that we have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Yammer, the world’s fastest-growing enterprise social networking service. Yammer provides a free service for employees to join a private social network that’s intuitive and easy to use. It also enables IT departments to easily transition an employee driven initiative into a managed, social-networking solution. If you’re a Yammer user today, you’ll continue to get the same experience you’re used to. I encourage you to see if your company already has a Yammer social network and join.

The combination of Yammer, SharePoint and Office 365 will provide the most comprehensive and flexible solutions for enterprise social networking. Over time, I see opportunity for exciting new scenarios by adding Yammer’s stand-alone service alongside and integrated into our collaboration offerings with SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics and Skype. I picture people being able to use Yammer to manage and expand their professional relationships, share and collaborate on Office documents, stay informed about content updates, and to seamlessly move from status updates and feeds into voice and video conversations.

Please join me in welcoming the Yammer employees to the Microsoft Office Division and the broader Microsoft family. The talented people at Yammer bring valuable experience delivering rapid innovation in the cloud, and it’s exciting to think about how our teams will partner to reimagine productivity in the workplace.

Posted by Kurt DelBene
President, Microsoft Office Division

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