RightNow acquires social networking company HiveLive

RightNow on Tuesday said it will acquire HiveLive, an enterprise social networking company, for about $6 million in cash.

In a statement, RightNow, which provides customer relationship management software as a service, said it plans to add HiveLive's technology to its platform. The move is the latest by vendors to provide so-called "social CRM."

HiveLive will be integrated with RightNow's November release. Increasingly, social media technology is being built into enterprise applications as a means to navigate corporate data and foster collaboration.

RightNow said HiveLive will allow it to offer prebuilt communities as a customer service channel, incorporate forums and blogs and mix it with its knowledge engine.

As for the financial details, RightNow said that HiveLive will add expenses of about $1 million per quarter due to headcount. The company reiterated its 2009 revenue target, but cut its non GAAP earnings per share target to a range of 27 cents a share to 31 cents a share. The previous target was 29 cents a share to 31 cents a share.

Wall Street is expecting 2009 earnings of 32 cents a share on revenue of $149 million for 2009.