Salesforce has completed its acquisition of chat client Slack Technologies for $27.7 billion. Slack is a rival of Microsoft Teams.
It is Salesforce’s biggest purchase ever, and one of the largest acquisitions in the software sector in recent years.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Slack as part of the Salesforce family, combining the #1 CRM and the trailblazing digital platform for the work anywhere world,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. “Together we’ll define the future of enterprise software, creating the digital HQ that enables every organization to deliver customer and employee success from anywhere.”
“We’ve learned over the past year that the workplace isn’t snapping back to the way it was,” said Bret Taylor, President and Chief Operating Officer of Salesforce. “Together, Slack and Salesforce Customer 360 will give every company in the world a single source of truth for their business and a single platform for connecting employees, customers, and partners with each other and the apps they use every day.”
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink and reshape how and where we work,” said Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO and Co-Founder. “Salesforce and Slack are uniquely positioned to lead this historic shift to a digital-first world. I could not be more excited for what’s to come.”
“We are obsessed with continually delighting our clients, and offering them the best experience and value across every interaction,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM. “Salesforce and Slack coming together will help us become more connected, more productive, and more innovative so we can better serve our clients.”
Acquisition to create the digital HQ for success from anywhere
Companies around the world have learned one thing over the past year—if you don’t have a digital way to connect with your employees, customers, and partners, you don’t have much of a chance of surviving.
Headquarters are no longer on Madison Avenue or Main Street—they are in the cloud. Every business—in every industry—has to optimize for a digital-first customer, employee, and partner experience.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink and reshape everything about how and where we work. That’s exactly what the combination of Salesforce and Slack is all about—creating the business operating system for the new world of work.
With the world’s #1 CRM, companies can sell, service, market, conduct commerce, and more from anywhere. Slack has transformed the way we work with its trailblazing digital platform for business communication, which is used by millions of people around the world and enables entire organizations to work far more efficiently and effortlessly.
Together, Salesforce and Slack will deliver the Slack-first Customer 360 that gives companies a single source of truth for their business, and a single platform for connecting employees, customers, and partners with each other and the apps they use every day, all within their existing workflows.
The combination of Salesforce and Slack also brings together two of the software industry’s most dynamic communities, creating an open and extensive ecosystem that will deliver the next generation of digital-first apps and workflows for business.
“Salesforce will create a modern workspace that enables collaboration, communities, communications, CRM functionality, customer experience, and AI in an ecosystem that will welcome other integrations to extend enterprise functionality,” said Wayne Kurtzman, IDC Research Director for Social, Communities, and Collaboration.
Salesforce and Slack are already making a huge difference. IBM’s 380,000 employees are working together in Slack, with numerous workflows across Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud powering customer success across locations and time zones.
As part of Salesforce, Slack will be positioned to accelerate and extend its mission to make work life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. Slack will continue to operate under the Slack brand, driving forward a continued focus on its mission, customers, and community. Slack will continue to be led by CEO and Co-Founder Stewart Butterfield.