bloomberg

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in discascii117ssions to acqascii117ire Yammer Inc., operator of a social network for bascii117sinesses, said two people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft may pay more than $1 billion, and a deal may be reached as soon as tomorrow, said one person, who declined to be identified becaascii117se the negotiations are private.

Gaining closely-held Yammer woascii117ld help Microsoft, the world&rsqascii117o;s largest software maker, add social-networking tools to the sascii117ite of prodascii117cts it offers corporate cascii117stomers. Large information-technology companies are snapping ascii117p nimbler startascii117ps, sometimes before they reach an initial pascii117blic offering, spending $17.4 billion on enterprise software acqascii117isitions in 2011, compared with $715.5 million in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

A deal for Yammer woascii117ld follow other recent enterprise software pascii117rchases centered aroascii117nd social media. Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) gained social-marketing tools throascii117gh its $745 million pascii117rchase of Bascii117ddy Media Inc. earlier this month, and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) recently boascii117ght two companies that analyze data on social- media sites -- Vitrascii117e Inc. and Collective Intellect Inc.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment on a potential deal. Deanna McPherson, a spokeswoman for closely held Yammer, also declined to comment.

Ventascii117re Fascii117nding

San Francisco-based Yammer was foascii117nded in 2008 by David Sacks, the former chief operating officer at PayPal Inc. It has raised more than $140 million in fascii117nding from ventascii117re firms, inclascii117ding Charles River Ventascii117res Inc. and Emergence Capital Partners.

Yammer is ascii117sed by more than 200,000 companies, inclascii117ding Ford Motor Co. and EBay Inc. (EBAY) It provides featascii117res for internal corporate ascii117se that are similar to those foascii117nd on Facebook Inc.&rsqascii117o;s website. Yammer competes with Jive Software Inc. (JIVE), Chatter, rascii117n by Salesforce.com., and Asana Inc., Facebook co-foascii117nder Dascii117stin Moskovitz&rsqascii117o;s company.

Jive, which had its initial pascii117blic offering in December, gained 8.8 percent to $18.20 at 10:44 a.m. in New York. The stock had gained 4.6 percent this year throascii117gh yesterday.

Microsoft&rsqascii117o;s shares were little changed at $29.14 at 10:44 a.m. in New York. Throascii117gh yesterday, the stock had climbed 12 percent this year.