Salesforce, one of the biggest and rising companies in the software industry, recently surpassing the $20 billion mark in annual revenue, announced that they would be acquiring Slack for $27.7 billion, causing Slack’s stock price to spike. The acquisition sets up the showdown with leading names in the industry, such as Microsoft and its Teams platform.
Moreover, the combination brings together two of the biggest names and highest-profile CEOs from the tech industry, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, who will continue to run Slack as a Salesforce unit after the deal’s close.
Just like how the mini and compact computer systems changed the way people functioned in the workplace and their daily lives, combining these two companies can be very beneficial to everyone involved—including the general public.
Here’s what their plan entails and how it can benefit customers.
Salesforce’s vision is to make Slack the front end ‘engagement layer’ of its cloud software portfolio, commonly known as the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.
The companies aim to combine Slack with the CRM platform, taking Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform to the next level. They aim to bring the revolutionary cloud software portfolio to all of their existing services and channels, including collaboration, integration, and interaction.
After all, every worker from any company needs to communicate efficiently, and that’s something Slack can provide alongside facilitating external communication with clients and partners, which is quite beneficial for a CRM software company like Salesforce.
Benioff says that Slack is a once-in-a-generation company platform, dubbing it as the ‘central nervous system’ of numerous companies—bringing their services and connecting with customers to new heights.
Improved Collaboration
The platform also allows you to see all the CRM information, ranging from sales to customer interactions, with ease. Slack Connection also extends the benefit of the platform by enabling employees to securely work and collaborate with partners, clients, and suppliers. Linking Salesforce’s Customer 360 and Slack Connect would allow partners and enterprises to collaborate efficiently, a compelling concept.
Salesforce also plans on leveraging Slack’s open platform, allowing users to integrate over 2,4000 applications—providing a more robust developer ‘ecosystem’ to the companies and ultimate convenience for users.
Slack Will Remain Independent
Despite the acquisition, Slack will stay as an independent company.
Salesforce announces that their team aims to help all their customers benefit from the combination of the two technologies, which is the driving force for both companies—connecting every application from their company and not only Salesforce. This arrangement provides an optimal balance.
That’s why Salesforce wants to make sure that Slack remains an independent brand and continues to serve every company and integrate with every system, shaping the future user interface of their Customer 360 platform.
The multi-billion-dollar deal is expected to officially close in the second quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal (taxation) second quarter.
Acquiring Slack was a logical move from Salesforce and would drastically benefit the brands and the people—streamlining workplace collaboration like never before. However, if both companies want to top off leading names like Microsoft and Google, they’ll need to add more solutions and acquire more businesses, but this is a significant first step for the two companies.
