Salesforce strengthens its muscles in the enterprise software market

Salesforce acquisition talks with Slack are shaking up the enterprise software landscape, opening up exciting possibilities that test the strategy of market leader Microsoft. In 2016, Microsoft considered an $ 8 billion acquisition of Slack, but Bill Gates advised the company to focus on internal development, first trying to improve Skype, and then developing Teams. Previously, Microsoft had tried unsuccessfully to acquire Salesforce for $ 55 billion, which would have been the largest acquisition in its history. Later, in 2016, Salesforce attempted to acquire LinkedIn, but was stung at the job by Microsoft, generating a complaint from the former for possible monopoly behavior that was quickly dismissed.

In July, Slack also reported monopoly behavior to Microsoft, arguing that Microsoft could force companies to install Teams as part of its Office package.

Now Salesforce is looking to buy out Slack, whose stock price has skyrocketed due to its widespread use during the pandemic: to around $ 30 last Wednesday, and now close to $ 41, returning its valuation to 23.2. billion dollars, but it should be fixed. to about $ 17 billion.

For Salesforce, the acquisition of Slack, which is very popular with startups, would help it develop the business communication market: Salesforce’s cloud software is popular with larger and consolidated companies, so explore the small segment. companies with development potential could be extremely interesting. Salesforce’s enterprise software covers almost all areas, it is basically seen as a support for outward facing operations (CRM, customers, suppliers, etc.), while Slack is more of an internal communications company with inward-looking operations, which would allow for a good strategic adjustment.

On the other hand, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield was unhappy with the sale to Yahoo! in 2005 from his previous company, Flickr, after which he was allowed to die on the vine and ended up being sold 13 years later.

The pandemic has permanently altered corporate communication: the new standard is now videoconferencing, as is the case with Zoom, as well as messaging and coordination applications. Microsoft sees this as fundamental to its growth, making Slack an attractive proposition thanks to its capabilities as an advanced messaging application, as well as a flexible API that allows integration with virtually any other type of application (management project, ticketing systems, messaging, document sharing, etc.), allowing the development of very advanced business communication systems. In short, an open platform philosophy very similar to that used by Marc Benioff in Salesforce, which could undoubtedly generate very interesting synergies.

Conversations between Salesforce and Microsoft seem quite advanced and a decision is expected in the coming days.