Salesforce Buys Jigsaw

Salesforce.com, a vendor of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), has announced that the software firm will be acquiring cloud based business contact data maker Jigsaw, in an all-cash deal for $142 million, making it the costliest acquisition made by the company till now.

Industry experts predict that Salesforce.com will utilise the data collected by Jigsaw in order to develop its own software, which will not only provide its customers with better services and broaden its software portfolio.

Jigsaw, which collects business data via crowd sourcing, allows its users to contribute information about businesses such as name, title, strengths amongst others, which in turn is sold to companies and individuals in need of such information.

Commenting on the acquisition deal, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, said in a statement that “With Jigsaw, we'll make it as easy as Wikipedia to source data, as easy as iTunes to buy data and as easy as Facebook to stay updated as the data changes.”

According to some people familiar with Salesforce.com's plans, the company plans to integrate its CRM business software with Jigsaw's cloud based data collection services, allowing it to enter the emerging $3 billion cloud based business to business data services market.