Salesforce.com to buy ExactTarget for $2.5B

Jun 04, 2013, 8:20 AM EDT

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff delivers the keynote address during the Dreamforce 2012 conference at the Moscone Center on September 19, 2024 in San Francisco, California.

Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

Web-based software maker Salesforce.com says it is to buy marketing software provider ExactTarget for about $2.5 billion in cash. The offer price represents a 53% premium to the stock's previous closing price. Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com's chief executive, is expanding the company beyond Web-based customer-management tools into programs for social-media marketing.