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| Salesforce to acquire Slack for $ 27.7 billion |
Cloud computing company Salesforce announced the acquisition of workplace chat developer Slack for $ 27.7 billion.
This deal represents one of the most significant acquisitions in the commercial software industry in recent years and is also an important acquisition by Salesforce.
Salesforce and Slack have jointly shaped the future of enterprise software and changed the way people work in a completely digital workplace, wherever they are, said Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.
Slack has grown from a fast-growing startup that was founded as a games company in 2009 to become a major competitor to Microsoft.
As of October last year, Slack had over 12 million daily active users and its market value was close to $ 25 billion.
The company started out as an alternative to email and has proven itself to be good at handling office communications for startups, media companies, and other tech companies.
The app has grown into a full productivity suite with video conferencing, file hosting, IT management, and all the other features that large companies typically provide.
Earlier this year, the company expanded its partnership with IBM to more than 350,000 employees across the company.
Due to stiff competition from Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies launching their own versions of chat and desktop productivity platforms, Slack has struggled.
Since it went public in April 2019, the company has lost nearly half of its market value. Despite the increase in remote work due to Corona, the company has not made any profit during the past three quarters.
Salesforce is also Microsoft's competitor for cloud computing, with a market value of nearly $ 220 billion.
Salesforce has grown to become one of the leading software companies in the world with customer relationship management software that enables customers to manage sales over the Internet.
During the coronavirus pandemic, demand for Salesforce and Slack increased as companies around the world switched to remote work and migrated most of their business to the internet.
In contrast to Slack's stock price, which has seen a series of highs and lows, Salesforce's market value has risen in recent months.
Salesforce shares set a record in September.
The combination of Salesforce and Slack can ensure that the two systems can compete better with Microsoft, Oracle, the cloud, and other companies in the future.