Salesforce.com buying ExactTarget for $2.34B

AP

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shares of ExactTarget soared 52% Tuesday after Salesforce.com said it will spend more than $2.3 billion to buy the marketing software company.

More than 6,000 companies use ExactTarget to manage their digital marketing, including Coca-Cola, Gap and Nike.

Salesforce.com, a cloud computing company, will pay $33.75 a share. That's a 53% premium to ExactTarget's Monday closing price of $22.10. The companies put the deal's value at approximately $2.5 billion.

Shares of ExactTarget soared $11.59 to close Tuesday at $33.69. Salesforce.com shares fell $3.24, or 7.9%, to close at $37.80.

The company has targeted the cloud marketing space for acquisitions as grows increasingly important to corporations. Salesforce.com bought Buddy media last year.

The buyout announced Tuesday has been approved unanimously by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by July 31.

Salesforce.com said that the acquisition is expected to lower its fiscal 2014 adjusted earnings by about 16 cents per share and increase its revenue by $120 million to $125 million. Adjusted earnings are now expected in a range of 31 cents to 33 cents per share on revenue between $3.96 billion and $4 billion.

Analysts expect earnings of 48 cents per share on revenue of $3.87 billion.

The transaction is predicted to reduce second-quarter adjusted earnings by approximately 5 cents per share, with results now anticipated between 6 cents to 7 cents per share.

Wall Street expects earnings of 12 cents per share.

ExactTarget has about 69.3 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.