Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is acquiring marketing software services company ExactTarget Inc (NYSE:ET) for $2.5 billion. Salesforce.com is paying $33.75 per share, which is about 53% above ExactTarget’s closing price as of yesterday. Salesforce.com customers will now be able to manage campaigns over e-mail, social networks, and mobile devices through the Salesforce Marketing Cloud service.
ExactTarget is an e-mail marketing company that has spent $116.5 million in acquisitions to build their marketing portfolio. ExactTarget paid $95.5 million for marketing automation firm Pardot LLC and $21 million in predictive analytics company iGoDigital. Pardot is in Atlanta and iGoDigital is in Indianapolis.
ExactTarget has raised $30 million in a new round of funding to fund acquisitions and to expand operations. ExactTarget is an e-mail marketing company that acquired CoTweet in 2009. ExactTarget raised $70 million in May 2009. ExactTarget’s revenues increased 41% to $134 million in 2010. ExactTarget was initially planning on going IPO in late 2007, but decided to raise funding instead. The latest round of funding was led by Technology Crossover Ventures. Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Greenspring Associates also participated in this round. [paidContent]
CoTweet is a Twitter analytics tool that is used by many major brands such as Ford and JetBlue. ExactTarget has acquired CoTweet as part of a strategy to roll the software into their own business. ”By combining the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet (cotweet), we can provide businesses a complete solution to tie together all forms of interactive communications and drive deeper customer engagement online,” stated ExactTarget CEO Scott Dorsey.
ExactTarget is an e-mail marketing firm that earned about $114 million in revenue for 2009. CoTweet charges about $1,500 per month for their Twitter analytics service to clients. Below is a video about how the organizations will connect with each other. [Mashable]
Email Marketing Meets Social Media – ExactTarget & CoTweet from ExactTarget on Vimeo.
ExactTarget is an e-mail marketing company that has just raised $70 million according to an SEC filing. This brings the total funding for the year to $145 million according to TechCrunch. The latest $70 million round of funding was provided by Technology Crossover Ventures. The previous round of funding comes from Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Montagu Newhall. ExactTarget was planning to file an IPO but ended up changing their minds.
ExactTarget helps clients design e-mail marketing materials such as coupons. The company also provides automated fraud alerts to clients and sets up SMS text messages. Some of ExactTarget’s customers include Home Depot, Expedia, and Gannett.
