Salesforce.com (CRM 3.44%) first announced its intention to acquire cloud-based digital marketing leader ExactTarget for an estimated $2.5 billion on June 4, 2013. Just over a month later, the deal has been completed, Salesforce.com said today.
Salesforce.com intends to integrate ExactTarget solutions into its industry-leading CRM in an effort to "create a world-class marketing platform across email, social, mobile and the web," according to today's release.
In support of Salesforce.com's objective to expand its cloud-marketing solutions with the acquisition of ExactTarget, it cited Gartner research that indicates, "CMOs will outspend CIOs on information technology by 2017."
In discussing the opportunity that ExactTarget solutions offer, Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff cited data compiled by Gartner that predicts, "CMOs will outspend CIOs on information technology by 2017." Benioff added, "The addition of ExactTarget makes Salesforce the starting place for every company and puts salesforce.com in the pole position to capture this opportunity."
