[wpaudio url=”https://media.shellypalmer.com/wp-content/images/usrn/120626_SHELLYPALMER_GEN_BED.mp3″ text=”Click to play … ” dl=”0″]
After weeks of rumors, Microsoft confirmed that it purchased Yammer for $1.2 billion dollars. That’s billion with a “B.” Yammer is a social networking site for business users, that currently has about five million users over 200,000 companies. Think of it as Facebook for your business. It’s a place where users can sign in to post short messages, share links, create events, and do other cool stuff. The main difference between Yammer and open social networks like Facebook, is that you can restrict Yammer users to people inside your company. If you’ve used it, you know how valuable real time social communication inside an organization can be. Over time, you can expect Yammer to be integrated into Microsoft’s Office Suite, SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics and Skype. Although some analysts think Microsoft paid too much, and waited too long to enter the social sphere, Yammer looks like a good acquisition and it should help Microsoft enhance many of its business products.