From Yammer…

This hit the Inbox today:

Dear Yammer Customer,

I am pleased to announce that Yammer has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Microsoft. After the close of the deal, Microsoft will continue to invest in Yammer's freemium, stand-alone service, and the team will remain under my direction within the Microsoft Office Division. With the backing of Microsoft, our aim is to massively accelerate our vision to change the way work gets done with software that is built for the enterprise and loved by users.

As a Yammer customer, you will continue to get a secure, private social network—delivered with the same focus on simplicity, innovation, and cross-platform experiences. Over time, you’ll see more and more connections to SharePoint, Office365, Dynamics and Skype. Yammer’s expertise in empowering employees, driving adoption, and delivering rapid innovation in the cloud will not only continue to power our stand-alone service, but also anchor the communication and collaboration experiences in Office 365.

You can find more information in this press release and our blog post.

Sincerely,

David Sacks

Yammer CEO and Founder

It’s Official…

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Jun12/06-25MSYammerPR.aspx

We knew this was coming, but now they are out of the closet.  So… what will this mean for SharePoint social add-ons?  How will NewsGator and the others plan for the next 12mo?  I think it will be very interesting as there is clearly a statement here that is SharePoint is NOT social, and as such, Microsoft is making a purchase that will enable them to bridge that gap.

On a side note, it makes me feel that Connections’ message is more solid than ever.  As the MS partner ecosystem tries to figure out what the new Yammer + SharePoint will mean for them, IBM can continue to develop and evolve their solution just as they have been for quite a few years now.  Businesses can’t deny that IBM has what is obviously a market leader, and also a very mature and stable solution when compared to the new SP landscape.  This will be fun, for sure.