After a week of rumors in which the value of Slack rose dramatically in the stock market, Salesforce (an online service company targeting businesses) recently announced that it would acquire Slack for $ 27.700 billion.
The agreement signed by the customer relationship management company, which recently exceeded $ 20.000 billion in annual sales, is one of the most important acquisitions years in the management software industry and the largest purchase ever made by Salesforce.
All workers in all companies must communicate, which Slack can do competently. In addition, it also facilitates external communication with customers and partners, which should be very useful for a company like Salesforce and its range of offerings.
While neither company has announced in detail what the agreement will mean for users and customers, a press release published Tuesday by Salesforce says that "Slack will be deeply integrated into every 'Salesforce Cloud."
The Co-Founder and CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, was quick on the subject of the deal:
"Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in the history of enterprise software, with an incredible ecosystem around it," he said. “It is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of business software and transform the way everyone works in the fully digital world of work, wherever they are. I am pleased to welcome Slack to Salesforce Ohana once the transaction is complete. "
“Salesforce started the cloud revolution, and two decades later, we continue to use all the power it offers to transform the way we work. The opportunity we see together is enormous, ”said Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack. “As software plays an increasingly critical role in the performance of each organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, greater power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of organizational alignment and agility. . Personally, I think this is the most strategic combination in the history of software and I can't wait to get started. "
The new deal puts Salesforce on a more level playing field and in competition with rival Microsoft, whose Teams product has directly challenged Slack in the marketplace.
Microsoft, which couldn't buy Slack in the past for a fraction of what Salesforce pays for Slack today, has made Teams a top priority in recent quarters, loathing to give up part of the business software market to another company.
The statement said that
“Slack shareholders will receive $ 26,79 in cash and 0,0776 Salesforce common shares for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $ 27,7 billion. based on the closing price of Salesforce common stock on November 30, 2020 ”,
According to the terms of Slack was ready for an acquisition of this type, it went from being a growing startup, established in 2009 as a video game company, to becoming a major competitor to Microsoft with more than 12 million daily active users as of September last year (and probably much more now, although the company has not released hard figures).
The company primarily started as an alternative to email targeting startups, media companies, and other tech-savvy businesses to better handle inter-office communication.
But Butterfield, also a co-creator of Flickr, and his team built Slack into a full productivity suite with features for video conferencing, file hosting, IT management, and all sorts of other features typically offered by large companies. Earlier this year, the company expanded its partnership with IBM to include the company's 350.000 employees.
However, Slack has also faced stiff competition not only from Microsoft, but also from Facebook (Workplace) and other companies that have launched their own versions of desktop productivity and chat platforms.
Source: https://www.salesforce.com