Dive Summary:

• Salesforce will buy ExactTarget, a marketing software service provider, for $2.5 billion.
• The big buy is part of Salesforce's acquisition strategy, which bought Buddy Media, a social media manager, and Radian6, a social media analytics provider, in the last two years.

From the article:

Buying ExactTarget will give Salesforce.com a portfolio of digital marketing services that allow customers to manage their campaigns over e-mail, social networks and mobile devices. Salesforce.com pointed to surveys showing an increase in marketing spending on digital offerings, with Garner estimating that consumer technology companies planning to switch one-third of their ad spending to online efforts within two years.

“The addition of ExactTarget makes Salesforce the starting place for every company and puts salesforce.com in the pole position to capture this opportunity,” Marc Benioff, chairman and chief executive of Salesforce.com, said in a statement.