Microsoft to buy Yammer - San Francisco Chronicle

ACQUISITIONS

Microsoft to buy Yammer

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to buy corporate social-network operator Yammer Inc. for $1.2 billion in cash to help it woo businesses with Facebook-like tools that help employees collaborate in the workplace.

San Francisco's Yammer will become part of Microsoft's Office division, and the team will continue to report to Yammer Chief Executive Officer David Sacks, the companies said Monday, confirming earlier reports of the sale. Yammer was founded in 2008 by Sacks, the former chief operating officer at PayPal Inc.

Yammer provides features - similar to those found on Facebook - to more than 200,000 companies such as Ford Motor Co. and eBay Inc. The purchase will help Microsoft compete with corporate social features like Salesforce.com Inc.'s Chatter product, as well as startups such as Jive Software Inc. and Asana Inc., run by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

The Yammer deal follows other recent enterprise software purchases centered on social media. San Francisco's Salesforce.com gained social-marketing tools through its $745 million purchase of Buddy Media Inc. earlier this month, and Redwood City's Oracle Corp. recently bought two companies that analyze data on social-media sites. Those are Vitrue Inc. and Collective Intellect Inc.

APPOINTMENTS

Rambus names president, CEO

Rambus Inc., a designer of computer memory chips that makes most of its money from royalties, has named Ronald Black as president and chief executive officer, picking a successor to Harold Hughes.

Black previously served as CEO for MobiWire (formerly Sagem Wireless) and other companies, Rambus said Monday. He also was an executive vice president at Agere Systems and held senior management roles at Motorola and International Business Machines Corp.'s Microelectronics division.

The new CEO will have to chart a comeback for Rambus after a legal defeat Nov. 16. The Sunnyvale company lost a $3.95 billion jury trial over allegations that Micron Technology Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. conspired to prevent Rambus chips from becoming an industry standard.

PATENTS

Panel to review Apple decision

A U.S. trade agency said it will review a judge's findings that Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad tablet computer infringes on patents owned by Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility unit, in a case that could lead to imports of the devices being banned.

The U.S. International Trade Commission said it will review ITC Judge Thomas Pender's findings that Apple was violating one of four Motorola Mobility patents. The commission is scheduled to issue a final decision Aug. 24, and has the power to block devices made in Asia from entering the United States. The iPhone, iPad and related devices generate 78 percent of Apple's revenue.

PRIVACY

Yahoo Japan shares drop

Yahoo Japan Corp. fell the most in three weeks in Tokyo trading as the government said it will question the company about plans to display advertisements based on the contents of users' e-mail messages.

Japan's largest Internet company by market value, in which Mountain View Web portal Yahoo owns a one-third stake, fell 1.5 percent at the close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Yahoo Japan will start using a program in August that automatically detects key words in e-mails, said Asuka Isayama, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Web portal operator. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications plans to ask Yahoo Japan about the service, said Deputy Director Noriyuki Morisato.

"We've been notifying users of our plan to introduce the service since the end of May, and we will also offer an option to opt out," Yahoo Japan's Isayama said. "So we don't think there's a problem."

Morisato declined to comment on whether the service violates privacy laws.