Yammer, which Microsoft claim has more than 5m corporate users representing over 85pc of the Fortune 500 companies, started as a messaging tool for companies, but quickly developed into a wider social network.
It operates as a “freemium” service, offering a basic free service, as well as a premium version of the service for $5 per user, per month. Microsoft said it would work to integrate Yammer with its other products, including Microsoft Office and Skype.
“It's a perfect fit for our cloud plans. We have a very aggressive plan to move our core capabilities to the cloud with Office 365 and Yammer fits right in,” said Microsoft's Kurt DelBene.
