Social Enterprise Software: $4.5B by 2016? (Part 2)

This is a follow-up post to Part 1 on the same topic.  If you have not read Part 1, I suggest you start there.  The chart below includes my assessment of the social enterprise software market.  The size of each bubble reflects my estimate on the size of each sub-sector, while the axes represent the relative […]

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Another Big Social Marketing Exit: Gannett Will Buy BLiNQ Media For Up To $92M

gannett-blinq2On the heels of Google buying Wildfire and Salesforce nabbing Buddy Media, we have heard from two very reliable sources, plus a third anonymous source, that Gannett Co., the media giant that owns USA Today and other properties, is buying BLiNQ Media. The price for the Facebook advertising software and service is up to $92 million over a period of three to four years, with a quarter of that amount, $23 million, coming up front.

We hear the purchase agreement has been signed and the pair are now marching towards a close at the end of this month. The rationale behind the deal is clear: when brands buy ad placements on Gannett properties, it could use BLiNQ to also sell them ads on social sites and collect a solid margin.

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Social Enterprise Software: $4.5B By 2016? (Part 1)

According to a recent report from IDC, social enterprise software will grow from $800 million in 2011 to $4.5 billion by 2016. Despite Facebook’s greedy IPO last May, and disappointing Q2 results from both Facebook and Zynga, social enterprise software is doing fine.  Six of the sixteen M&A transactions in the sector during the past 2.5 years occurred since Facebook’s IPO.  These six transactions totaled […]

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Oracle Acquires Social Marketer Involver As Enterprise Giants Buy Rather Than Build For Tomorrow

Screen shot 2012-07-10 at 9.23.31 AMOld world online marketers must build, buy, or die, and Oracle has made its choice. Oracle just agreed to acquire Involver, only a month after the giant bought its competing social marketing platform Vitrue. Involver will be rolled into Oracle Cloud marketing suite, and the deal is expected to close over the summer (Update: though the purchase price may have been quite low).

Oracle has been on acquisition spree as of late, buying Vitrue for publishing, Collective Intellect for monitoring, and Right Now for customer service, Involver will give Oracle a powerful toolset for helping brands create custom applications as they adjust to sea change in marketing brought on by social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Here we dive deep into the two-year trend of social M&A that Oracle is driving, and ask if mobile marketing is the next industry to see a roll-up.

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The Verdict Is In: Google Did NOT Infringe On Oracle’s Patents

android-happyJust over a week ago, the jury began deliberations on the ongoing patent infringement case between Google and Oracle. After waiting in the wings, with bated breath, the verdict is finally in, as Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court of Northern California dismissed the jury this afternoon after a unanimous decision that ruled in favor of Google’s mobile OS — declaring that Android did not in fact infringe on the Oracle patents in question.

The decision follows an opposing verdict earlier this month, in which the jury in the long-running infringement case found that certain components of Android APIs had too close of a resemblance to code used in Oracle’s Java programming tools. However, the jury ended up splitting on the notion of whether or not Google could in fact claim fair use in its defense (which could have then led to a mistrial.)

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Social Media Marketer Vitrue Has Been Bought By Oracle For $300 Million

Oracle VitrueTechCrunch has discovered and confirmed that software giant Oracle has bought social marketing platform Vitrue for $300 million. [Update: A press release has confirmed the buy at an undisclosed price, though we know it to be $300 million.] As if Oracle didn’t offer enough products and services already, the acquisition will give it a strong Facebook marketing platform to offer its enterprise clients.

Vitrue had taken $33 million in funding over the years and grown to become one of the most popular solutions for big companies trying to win Facebook fans and push out marketing messages to the news feed. Vitrue, according to a source, was on course for revenues of just under $100 million this year, although we have other sources disputing it may have been that high. TC understands there were a lot of potential acquirers interested. Several bidders approached the company but Oracle was the most aggressive.

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