Salesforce.com formally acquires Fredericton-based Radian6

By Quentin Casey – Telegraph Jounal | link to original article

Radian6, the darling of New Brunswick’s emerging technology sector, has officially been sold to a San Francisco-based cloud computing company. Late Monday, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) announced its acquisition of Fredericton-based Radian6, one of New Brunswick’s fastest growing and most dynamic startups.

The deal, originally announced in late March, is impressive, particularly for a company founded, initially funded and built in New Brunswick. Salesforce paid $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock for Radian6. In addition, Radian6’s founders were to receive approximately $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash.

Founded in 2006, Radian6 developed technology that allows companies to track what is being said about them online. By monitoring the cyber chatter, Radian6’s clients can respond to questions and react to criticism.

Co-founders Chris Newton and Chris Ramsey developed the foundation for Radian6 at a Fredericton Tim Hortons. Five years later, the company has 350 employees and more than 2,400 clients, including General Electric, Kodak and Molson Coors.

By monitoring online conversations, on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Radian6 can determine how its clients and their brands are being discussed in cyberspace.

Radian6’s fortunes have risen steadily since the company launched its technology roughly three years ago. For instance, the company saw its revenues triple in 2010 as more than 1,000 companies adopted the technology. Radian6’s long client list includes more than half of the Fortune 100, from Dell to Microsoft and PepsiCo.

« This is the largest and fastest-growing player in the social media monitoring space, » said Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff during a conference call in March. « It’s an amazing company. It’s an amazing technology. »

When announcing the deal, Benioff said his company had secured a major player in the exploding social media sector.

« We really believe that the explosive growth of social media is just beginning, » Benioff said at the time. « They are the definitive technology and market leader in the social media monitoring space, » he continued. « We bought the dominant player. That’s the only way to enter this space. »

Neither company commented Monday on the finalized deal. In a release, however, Radian6 CEO Marcel LeBrun said he welcomed the closing of the deal. « We look forward to working with Salesforce.com’s customers to show them the power of listening to, and engaging with, the social web, » he said.

In a previous interview, LeBrun said the sale would help Radian6 grow even faster. « Salesforce has over 90,000 customers. It’s a very large brand and very well recognized, » he said. « Being part of Salesforce is going to help us accelerate and reach more companies than we would have on our own. »

Using cloud computers, Salesforce.com allows business owners and their employees to pool all their contacts, accounts, sales records and other documents in one place.

Salesforce also includes a calendar and day planner, as well as Chatter – something like a private Facebook for businesses. Like on Facebook, Salesforce users can post status updates, which are visible to clients, co-workers and others involved with their business.

Essentially the program centralizes much of a business’ information within one program. And like Gmail for email service, Salesforce is accessible at any computer with an Internet connection, or on a mobile device.

At the end of January, more than 92,000 customers were using Salesforce to manage their business information, including Dell, Japan Post and SunTrust Banks.

The purchase of Radian6 is expected to boost Salesforce’s 2012 revenues by up to $50 million. The company now expects 2012 revenue to hit roughly $2.1 billion.

« Salesforce’s growth is accelerating, » Benioff said in March.