Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff indicated during a quarterly earnings conference call a major product launch is in the works that will tap Canadian acquisition Radian 6’s social analytics technology, according to Forbes.
The Halifax-based social monitoring and tracking software was bought by Salesforce in March 2011 in a deal worth $326 million in cash and stock. Now it looks like Salesforce will be pooling the company’s software with that of Buddy Media, another large acquisition, to create a marketing cloud service portal. Benioff said during the conference call that the product will be unveiled at Dreamforce, the company’s major annual conference held in San Francisco starting Sept. 18. The goal after that is to ramp up to $1 billion in revenues.
David Alston at Dreamforce 2011.
At least year’s Dreamforce conference, Radian 6 chief marketing officer David Alston indicated the firm was still operating as an independent unit from Salesforce post-acquisition. It still sells its software suite separately, but this may mark the beginning of a different course for the firm.
Salesforce has been fond of Canadian startups, acquiring four in the past two years. Aside from Radian 6, it’s acquired Vancouver-based Sitemasher, Toronto-based Rypple, and Halifax-based GoInstant.
If its financial report for the last quarter is any indication, Salesforce isn’t letting up on its acquisition strategy any time soon. The firm has more than $1 billion in cash on hand.