CRM platform Salesforce.com has bought cloud marketing suite ExactTarget, in a deal valued at $2.5 billion.
ExactTarget’s digital marketing capabilities will allow Salesforce to create a marketing platform across email, social, mobile and the web. It has more than 6,000 clients, including Coca-Cola, Gap and Nike.
The move will give Salesforce.com an email marketing business. The company also offers social and mobile marketing capabilities, as well as a marketing automation platform.
The move is Salesforce’s largest acquisition to date, ahead of Buddy Media, which it bought last year for $689 million.
In 2011, the company purchased social-monitoring platform Radian6 for $276 million in cash plus additional stock.
The deal follows Salesforce.com’s announcement last month of Social.com, which was distinct from the social media ad campaign capabilities that it gained with its acquisition of Buddy Media.
