Confirming rumors from last week, Salesforce has acquired channel-based business communication platform Slack in a $27.7 billion blockbuster deal. Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share.
Through this acquisition, Salesforce plans to combine Slack with Salesforce Customer 360. According to Salesforce, Slack will become the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360. As part of this effort, Salesforce will deeply integrate Slack into every Salesforce Cloud.
While Salesforce hasn’t detailed what existing users should exactly expect from this deal, the company notes in its press release that Slack will transform how people communicate, collaborate, and take action on customer information across Salesforce. It also wants to create an ‘open ecosystem of apps and workflows’ for businesses.
“Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. I’m thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce.
Here’s what Slack’s CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield had to say regarding the acquisition: “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility. Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going.”
Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack comes at a time when remote work has skyrocketed due to the coronavirus pandemic. With Salesforce’s backing, Slack is now in a better position to compete against its primary competitor Microsoft Teams. We will have to wait to see if the Salesforce-Slack deal will convince businesses on competing platforms to switch to Salesforce for a unified experience.
