Salesforce Invests in Massive Social Marketing Power

Salesforce.com has confirmed plans to pay $2.5 billion in order to acquire marketing software maker ExactTarget, which enables companies to connect with customers on social networks via mobile.

The acquisition — the biggest ever for Salesforce.com — is its eighth in the past year and its second big purchase focused on social media. It acquired Buddy Media, which helps big brands manage Facebook and Twitter pages, in August.

“On the heels of Marketo’s recent IPO and Oracle’s purchase of Eloqua, Salesforce’s bold move into this space has been anticipated and signals a well-established trend toward further consolidation in the industry,”Lyris CMO, Alex Lustberg, tells Mobile Marketing Watch today.

“The move also highlights the growing influence of the CMO in the technology purchase decision making process,” Lustberg continued. “It will be interesting to track the changing relationship between the CMO and CIO as enterprises seek to harness the power of integrated solutions to derive actionable insights and deliver measurable business growth. There is now a lot more pressure on the CMO to deliver bottom line results.”

Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff tells Reuters that the company would now “dramatically slow the pace of deal making.”

“I really think what you are going to see is us taking a vacation from M&A for anywhere between probably 12 and 18 months,” he revealed Tuesday morning.