Washington, June 26 : Software giant Microsoft has officially announced that it has acquired social network for businesses Yammer for 1.2 billion dollars.

The company said in its announcement that Yammer, which launched in 2008, will join the Microsoft Office Division.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, as saying that the acquisition of Yammer `underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love.'

"Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft''s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services," Ballmer added.

According to the report, Yammer will continue to be led by its CEO, David Sacks, who said Yammer''s goal is to change how people work through social networking.

"Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we''ll need to scale and innovate," Sacks said in a statement.

Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within companies. (ANI)