Business-software company Yammer Inc. agreed to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $1.2 billion, according a person familiar with the matter, in a sign Microsoft may be trying to plug holes in its ubiquitous Office software.
It is unclear when the Yammer acquisition will be completed and announced, according to the person familiar with the deal. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment. Representatives for Yammer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yammer is often called Facebook Inc. for the workplace because it creates private social networks inside companies. Yammer—launched in 2008—also has file-sharing tools and other software.
Yammer-developed networks allow a company’s employees to communicate and collaborate in a similar fashion the way Facebook works with friends.
The report said that purchase of Yammer could add more social features to Microsoft’s Office software suite. The Office division regularly generates more than half of Microsoft’s annual operating income.
The four-year-old Yammer, which has four million corporate users, has raised about $142 million from venture-capital investors.
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