Salesforce.com buys web conference vendor Dimdim

Salesforce.com announced Thursday it has purchased web conferencing software vendor Dimdim for $31 million (£20 million), and plans to use the company's technology to augment its Chatter enterprise collaboration platform.

Dimdim provides a suite of messaging, screen sharing and other capabilities. Its addition to Chatter will mimic "the proven Facebook model of combining collaboration and communication into an integrated service," Salesforce.com said.

Some 60,000 customers already use Chatter, which Salesforce.com first introduced in 2009. The Dimdim deal should spur even healthier adoption, Salesforce.com said in a statement.

Monthly Dimdim accounts will be available until March 15, while annual accounts will be valid until the ending subscription date, according to a FAQ document on Dimdim's website. Any recordings or uploaded documents will not be available after subscriptions expire and customers are encouraged to download them ahead of time, it adds.

Open source code made available by Dimdim will still be accessible at SourceForge.net, but the company will no longer be contributing to that project, according to the FAQ.

The deal, which had been rumoured for some time, also represents the latest effort by Salesforce.com, still best known for its core CRM (customer relationship management) software, to round out a portfolio of business applications and services.

At its recent Dreamforce conference, Salesforce.com unveiled Database.com, which gives customers access to its platform's underlying database infrastructure.