Workplace messaging app Slack is now owned by Salesforce
Recently, one of the largest deals on the technology market occurred. Salesforce, which develops the CRM system with the same name, acquired the workplace messaging app Slack. The transaction amounted to 27.7 billion dollars.
For the first time the possibility of purchase became known in November last year. Then it became known about the negotiations, which were held by the companies. The figure of $17 billion was tentatively called, but the actual amount was much more.
Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of the messaging app Slack will receive $26.79 billion in cash, while the rest of the money will be given in the form of shares of Salesforce.
Experts say that this acquisition will be one of the most significant in the history of the market. The fact is that now Salesforce is a direct and highly influential competitor for giants such as Microsoft and Alphabe – the management company of Google.
But analysts say the deal may not live up to Salesforce executives’ expectations. The developer already had several large deals under its belt that did not have the intended effect and did not attract a large number of users. Salesforce is considered the world’s largest provider of software that focuses on customer interactions. The company works with 150 thousand clients, including both startups and large corporations. Last year’s revenue was $17.1 billion.
The founder of the workplace messaging app Slack is Stuart Butterfield. Initially the project was created as an additional tool for the work of Tiny Speck game studio. Then the development team was located in different cities, and in order to maintain communication, Slac was created in 2014. The company listed in 2019, and its capitalization jumped from $15.7 billion to $23 billion. Slac messaging app is used by 12 million people worldwide. The company’s revenue for 2020 was $630 million.
After the merger, Stuart Butterfield will remain as head of Slac as a separate division.
For Salesforce, the messaging app is an opportunity to increase the number of users, as well as to pump up the functionality of its products. According to some experts, that approach may not work. In addition, Salesforce is investing a lot of money in the messaging app, and is unlikely to refuse to intervene in its further development.
With the pandemic, a huge number of services have appeared on the market, which are similar in functionality to Slack. And the messaging app is painfully experiencing such competition. The numbers speak to this. In 2020, Slack shares rose by only 10%, and after the news of the acquisition by 37%. In turn, the securities of Zoom showed a rise in value of 400%.
