The grapevine was right this time as Microsoft has confirmed that it will acquire Yammer for a whopping $1.2 billion.

Rumor about the Yammer acquisition by the Redmond, Washington-based software giant first came out a week or so ago, after Bloomberg – citing two unnamed sources who, as usual, are said to be “familiar with the matter – said that Microsoft is negotiating a deal to acquire Yammer.

No specific price was divulged by these sources then – although one said that it would be more than $1 billion – but now Microsoft has itself verified that it is indeed buying Yammer and for no small amount.

Yammer is a social networking company which owns a platform used mainly by people from the enterprise. It has more than 200,000 companies using it. These companies include EBay and Ford.

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the Yammer acquisition is but another symbol of their love for businesses and people.

“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” the Microsoft chief said in a statement. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”

Once the deal is finalized, Yammer will officialy live on as a part of the Microsoft Office Division. It will be managed by President Kurt DelBene.

“Yammer will be an important addition to Microsoft’s cloud services and this acquisition underscores our commitment to helping customers move to the cloud. Together we’ll deliver the most complete solution in the marketplace,” DelBene told members of the media in a press conference about the Yammer acquisition.

Equally praiseful of the deal and Microsoft is former PayPal Chief Operating Officer David Sacks who in 2008 founded Yammer. Sacks will continue to be Yammer chief under DelBene’s Office Division.

“Microsoft is one of the few software companies whose products are household names. Today’s announcement signals the beginning of our plans to make Yammer one of them as well,” Sack is quoted as saying in the same press conference.

Ballmer was equally all praises about Yammer. He said that “The so-called consumerization of IT is a trend which I think perhaps more than almost any other company out there Yammer has gotten right.”

Meanwhile, analysts and experts are divided when it comes to the Yammer acquisition with some saying that Microsoft took too long to the social party while some seeing the potential of social media integration with the Microsoft Office productivity suite.

Image from inju on Flickr (CC)

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .