The IT giant wants to integrate the messaging platform between colleagues to push the offer for agile work to companies and challenge giants like Microsoft and Google
(Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) With the spread of smart working during the lockdown as a measure to counter the spread of Covid-19 infections, the importance of services and communication platforms for work has also grown. The move by the US IT giant Salesforce fits into this framework, announcing the acquisition of Slack Technologies for $ 27.7 billion.Confirming the rumors of a possible agreement between the two companies, after months of negotiations with this operation Salesforce aims to integrate its cloud services for companies with the famous company chat and video chat platform developed by Slack and launched in 2013.
That the operation is strategic for both parties is confirmed by its timing. On the one hand, Salesforce is achieving a series of positive results that have recently led it to exceed $ 20 billion in annual revenues, as reported on Techcrunch.
On the other hand, Slack, after having closed investments for over 7 billion dollars in the past, has paid above all for the decision to go public, losing about 40% of its value due to strong competition of other platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meets, which during 2020 have seen exponential growth in both users and turnover. Overall, the market valuation of the Slack platform is around $ 25 billion.
Its moderate performances, however, have made it an interesting prey for a giant like Salesforce, which after putting aside the takeover of Twitter, with this acquisition aims to directly challenge its direct competitors Microsoft and Google precisely in the field of communication and document exchange solutions for businesses and companies, especially thanks to the integration of Slack services with those of the Salesforce Customer 360 system.
And the intentions of the two companies is now the desire to collaborate to create new IT tools for work, as also underlined by the CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, who commenting on the operation said that the two companies together "will build the future of enterprise software and transform the way in which you work in the digital world and with systems that allow you to work wherever you are. "