There's another significant acquisition in the business software segment. Cloud computing giant Salesforce is buying workplace chat app Slack for US$27.7 billion, making it Salesforce's biggest acquisition yet. According to a press release from both companies, "Under the terms of the agreement, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $27.7 billion based on the closing price of Salesforce's common stock on November 30, 2020."
While we don't know what this would mean for the app, it seemed like this acquisition was a long time coming as the company hasn't been profitable in recent years, even as COVID-19 has forced more and more companies to focus on remote and online work. Slack continues to face intense pressure from competition like Microsoft Teams. Maybe this acquisition will make it easier for both companies to go against their competition.
One thing is certain, a Salesforce-backed Slack now has the latitude to be a dominant player in the business-software space. Not only do we expect tighter integration between Slack and Salesforce products and services, the staggering Salesforce partner ecosystem will be opened up to Slack which can potentially be the nerve-center of a businesses communication and activity. We're talking project management, marketing, sales, CRM, support and other functions piped into Slack. The future is bright and the software landscape had definitely changed because of this acquisition.
Source: The Verge