Salesforce has acquired ExactTarget for approximately $2.5bn (£1.6bn).

The acquisition is intended to boost Salesforce’s CRM offering by introducing ExactTarget’s digital marketing capabilities, and make it a viable tool for CMOs. Salesforce predicts the acquisition will increase its total revenue by $120-125m for the financial year 2014.

“ExactTarget’s mission is to revolutionize how businesses connect with their consumers using data-driven digital marketing across all channels,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and CEO. “Salesforce’s tremendous strength in social marketing, along with its leadership position in sales and service, not only will accelerate this vision, but also provide our customers with a powerful, integrated CRM platform to transform their end-to-end customer experience.”

ExactTarget was founded in 2000, and its cloud marketing platform is used by more than 6,000 companies globally, including Coca-Cola, Gap and Nike.