Salesforce buys Slack for US$27.7 billion

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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

Slack gives its desktop app a performance boost

Slack is making life easier for its Windows and macOS users. The collaboration software has been rebuilt for both Windows and macOS to make it load 33 percent faster and use 50 percent less RAM than before. Many Slack customers will notice the change, but it’ll be particularly evident for those who use multiple workspaces. The company has been working on this overhaul for two years, and they have been modernizing parts of the code along the way. The new underlying code is now multi-workspace aware, meaning it won’t create a standalone copy for each workspace and take up RAM for each instance. What the program does is reuse components and rely on a modern codebase. The app itself still runs on Electron, but all the UI parts have been rebuilt using React.

For those who use Slack calls, that feature should be faster as well. And when you’re offline or suffer from a bad internet connection, the app now caches your session better. The app doesn’t get an offline mode per se, but you can now look back at messages in a channel or view conversations you were having before your connection dropped. All these changes have started rolling out to Slack users now.

Source: The Verge

Slack gets dark mode on mobile, too, brings it first to beta users

So, do you answer Slack messages in the dark? Here’s something to make it easier on your eyes. The workplace collaboration app just brought dark mode to its Android and iOS apps. However, it’s currently only available to beta testers. If you want in on the action, you can join Slack’s beta testing program. Just head over to the app’s settings and find the Join Beta section. You’ll be prompted there to provide your name and e-mail address. When you’re approved to join and have updated your app accordingly, a toggle will appear to let you turn the mode on or off in settings. The Android version of the app will ask you to restart Slack, while the iOS version will get the feature automatically.

Source: The Verge

Slack puts out full-page ad just as Microsoft readies to enter team-based chat service

Photo from the Verge

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In a move reminiscent of old-school passive aggressive tech company taunting, Slack took out a full-page ad on the New York Times to "Welcome Microsoft," and offer some advice as the Redmond Giant unveiled its competing Microsoft Teams collaborative chat service.

Slack is the darling communications app of the technology teams and one of Silicon Valley's most beloved services and it was long rumoured to be in Microsoft's sights as a company to be acquired. There may have been some back-channel negotiations that somehow fell through. Anyway, when a company pulls a stunt like this, they're not really just talking to the recipient (in this case, Microsoft), but the world at large in order to tout their features and brag about their achievements. 

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