Buddy Media, known for helping companies advertise on Facebook, is being acquired by Salesforce.com, AllThingsD reported on Tuesday.
According to sources, the price tag could be around $800 million. Buddy Media was apparently given a comparable offer from Google, but chose Salesforce instead. Facebook and ad holding company WPP were also rumored to be interested.
New York City-based Buddy Media was founded in 2007 by CEO Michael Lazerow and COO Kass Lazerow. Since then it has raised nearly $90 million, including a $23 million round C in October 2011 from Institutional Venture Partners, Greycroft, and Bay Partners, and a $54 million round D in August 2011 from Insight Venture Partners, along with existing investors. During that fundraising round, Buddy Media was valued at $500 million.
Buddy Media helps maintain advertising, ads and pages on social networks. While it is best known for its work with ad-targeting for Facebook, Buddy Media also has worked with Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
Earlier this year, Buddy Media acquired Facebook ads API partner Brighter Option, after purchasing social commerce and analytics startup Spinback in May 2011.
San Francisco-based software company Salesforce has also made some big purchases recently, purchasing online editing platform Stypi for an undisclosed amount in early May.
This is not Saleforce’s first foray into the social media world. In March of 2011, Salesforce bought Canadian social media monitoring platform Radian6 for $326 million.
Salesforce will most likely resell Buddy Media’s services, using them to expand the reach of Salesforce clients on social media platforms like Facebook and Google+. Buddy Media will allow Salesforce customers to do more targeted advertising.
For example, Buddy Media put coupons for Pretzel Crisps on Facebook, and was able to double the number of fans on its Facebook page.
Salesforce currently has 100,000 customers, and had net income of over $64 million in 2011, out of over $1.6 billion in revenue.
Representatives at Salesforce and Buddy Media could not be reached for comment.
