But as the number two cloud-computing business behind only Amazon, Microsoft has less to worry about than Google, which may be provoked by Salesforce’s swaggering to make a bold bet on collaboration software of its own in the coming months.
In addition to battling Slack with Microsoft Teams, it has got Dynamics, its own Salesforce-fighting customer-relationship management software. Microsoft is the playing the long game too. Taking up Slack, which been fending off the encroachment of Microsoft Teams for three years, would further enflame the long-brewing rivalry over in-office software.ĭaniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, calls the Salesforce’s possible Slack purchase “an aggressive move” that would be “a major shot across the bow at Microsoft.” A deal could, he writes, “set off a chain reaction for more cloud software deals in 2021 despite the run-up in valuations over the past nine months,” largely due to a booming tech rally lofted by the pandemic forcing people to work from home. In 2016, Salesforce brought onboard Quip, a phone-first word processor positioned as a competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite. At the end of 2009, Salesforce bought GroupSwim, a company it turned into Chatter, basically a Facebook for the workplace-quite like Microsoft’s Yammer. For years Salesforce has been setting itself on a collision course with Microsoft over the fast-growing and highly lucrative “cloud” market. Like Amazon continually adding new perks for Prime subscribers-same-day delivery, exclusive music, Whole Foods discounts-Salesforce is looking to offer an ever-more compelling bundle-one that might, it hopes, rival Microsoft. Slack’s chat app is a sticky piece of software that has essentially become an operating system on which offices run, enabling integrations with all sorts of other tools (including Salesforce’s). Slurping up Slack would expand and deepen Salesforce’s virtual hooks into workplaces. He wants to build a platform-that word Wall Street-wooing techies love-to accommodate all offices’ computer-based needs. Why would Salesforce be interested in Slack? Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s billionaire founder and CEO, clearly wishes to build his business into something greater than just a purveyor of software for managing customers and sales leads, the company’s bread-and-butter money-maker. Neither Salesforce nor Slack responded to Fortune’s request for comment. That figure represents Slack’s market capitalization in recent days-before M&A rumors sent the stock surging almost 25%, causing stock markets to halt trading of its shares, on Wednesday. The two tech companies recently held talks about a deal whose value would likely top $17 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. Salesforce is eyeing what could become its biggest-ever acquisition: Slack, the workplace instant messenger.
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