What is being said about the possible marriage between Salesforce and Informatica
Salesforce investors aren't thrilled about the potential tie-up between the enterprise software pioneer and data management company Informatica. Facts, numbers and comments
Thump on the stock market for Salesforce in the wake of the news of negotiations to acquire Informatica.
Shares of the enterprise software pioneer fell 7% on Monday after reports that the company is in talks to buy Informatica. On the same day, Informatica shares fell 6%, CNBC reports.
Informatica, with a market capitalization of about $11 billion, would be Salesforce's largest purchase sincethe company bought Slack for nearly $28 billion in 2021. The cash-and-stock deal was the largest in the sector of cloud software, surpassing Microsoft's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn.
All the details.
IT IN SALESFORCE'S SIGHTS?
According to US media reports, Salesforce is in talks to acquire Informatica.
The price under discussion is lower than Informatica's current stock price of $38.48, reported the Wall Street Journal , which first reported the talks between Salesforce and Informatica.
As a cloud-based software company, Salesforce helps sales staff manage customer relationships, while Informatica allows businesses to manage their data across cloud and on-premises systems for better analytics.
WHAT IT DOES
Founded in 1993, Informatica offers subscription-based data management services in the cloud and also helps automate tasks for more than 5,000 active customers, Reuters reports. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, its clients include Unilever and Deloitte, according to its website. Informatica shares have risen nearly 43% this year, valuing the company at about $11.35 billion.
THE SOFTWARE COMPANY SHOPPING
Salesforce has acquired more than 70 companies since 2006. In 2021 the US cloud computing giant acquired the work chat service Slack for $27.7 billion. A deal aimed at giving the two companies a better chance to compete with longtime powerhouse Microsoft.
The customer relations software maker has built on its success in recent years to diversify into other fields, largely through a series of acquisitions including the $15.7 billion takeover of the data analytics specialist Tableau Software in 2019 and MuleSoft for $6.5 billion in 2018. Many of the deals were financed with shares of Salesforce, which is worth almost seven times more than it was ten years ago and has a market value of $265 billion of dollars.
UNDER THE LENS OF ACTIVIST INVESTORS
Reuters also recalls that Salesforce's dealmaking strategy came under scrutiny in early 2023, when activist investors, including ValueAct Capital and Elliott Management, questioned the company's strategy and pushed management to change. In response, Salesforce implemented cost reductions and increased stock buybacks. He also disbanded the board's M&A committee.
THE BET ON AI
Like many large technology companies, Salesforce also wants to bet on artificial intelligence, notes Quartz . Earlier this year, Salesforce released two major releases: Einstein Copilot, a generative AI assistant for CRM released in February, and Einstein 1 Studio, a toolset that allows developers to customize Einstein Copilot released in March.
Likewise, Informatica launched new tools last year that allow companies to manage their data using artificial intelligence.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/che-cosa-si-dice-sulle-possibili-nozze-tra-salesforce-e-informatica/ on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:57:10 +0000.