Timeline of major social media acquisitions

Recent acquisitions by technology firms continues to draw plenty of interest, as covered on the Elemental blog, and there is no sign of it slowing down.  From Facebook making a surprising $1 Billion Instragram acquisition and then experiencing a less then successful IPO, the global recession has done very little to dampen technology spending habits.

The infographic by Pardot entitled ?The social CRM arms race? has a crack at highlighting two of the most well-known software firms change of heart in the social media space, acquiring social software with budgets that make most eyes water. 

With the keeping up with the Jones?s effect - particularly with Oracle and Salesforce - which the infographic focuses upon, the 14 acquisitions between them (seven a piece), is a good place to start.  The infographic shows that since January 2011, Oracle has splurged a massive $5 Billon and Salesforce not so close behind with $3 Billon.

It?s a good timeline and a glimpse of where software companies heads may be at, as social media advertising, CRM, measurement et al wins better favour and may be the turning points in winning more hearts and minds across the board.  As Pardot mentions on its blog, the older acquisitions have already been set in place and now part of the aforementioned brands offering relatively quickly.  How quickly they integrate the recent buys and possibly snap up others remains to be seen. As for other firms such as SAP AG etc., it will be interesting to see how they approach this space.

The Social CRM arms race ? a timeline infographic