Microsoft has agreed to buy business-software company Yammer, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, from an unidentified source. The price is $1.2 billion.
There's been no immediate comment from officials at either company, but it's no secret negotiations have been under way for some time and word of a deal has been expected.
Yammer creates private social networks inside companies. Bloomberg News reports acquiring Yammer would help Microsoft add social-networking tools to the suite of products it offers corporate customers.
As Bloomberg points out, a deal for Yammer would follow other recent enterprise software purchases centered on social media. For instance, Salesforce.com gained social marketing tools through its $745 million purchase of Buddy Media, Inc. this month and Oracle recently bought Vitrue Inc. and Collective Inellect Inc, to companies that analyze data on social-media sites.
On a smaller scale, it was announced Thursday that Syncapse, a company that helps other firms manage their brands on Facebook, has acquired Clickable, a smaller company which helps businesses buy Facebook ads. Purchased price wasn't announced.