5 Merger and Acquisition stories of Salesforce in 2019

Salesforce is one company that is known for maintaining its supremacy by acquiring other organizations to add more value to its balance sheet and diminish the effects of its peers going on an acquisition spree.

Salesforce has always remained one step ahead of the curve in data analytics space ever since its inception with its own internal innovations and developments that were further complemented with its acquisitions, across a diverse range of industries.

Here in this blog, we will discuss the top 5 acquisitions by Salesforce.

1. Griddable

Griddable, a SaaS-based organization that has the distinction of making the first smart grid for enterprise data for its industry, was acquired by Salesforce on 30th January 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

Griddable provides a seamless platform to customers for synchronizing enterprise data in the cloud.

Features of Griddable:

• Grid data lets you move data from any type of database platform on any cloud with the policy engine of Griddable controlling data transformation and definition.
• The self-service platform connects effortlessly to on-premises data.
• Secure and simpler onboarding through public cloud credentials, VPN, and out-of-the-box templates.
• It can help migrate on-premises data to the cloud.
• Users can choose different databases for each source or can change to a new relational database, big data platform, or cloud-native platform.
• Allows deployment across a variety of topologies with the help of templates.
• Filter, mask, encrypt or transform data at the schema, table, row, or column data without performing disruption of the source data.
• Use languages like JSON to define topology, masking, and transformations.

2. Salesforce.org

In April 2019, Salesforce paid $300 million to acquire Salesforce.org, its own charitable foundation that has been a reseller of Salesforce services and software to the non-profit sector. This acquisition was made as part of a new and larger non-profit and education vertical that will be led by Rob Acker, the current CEO of Salesforce.org. The amount of $300 million will be distributed to the Salesforce.com Foundation, another independent public benefit corporation, which will use it for philanthropic purposes.

Salesforce.org is an official Salesforce software reseller that grants, distributes, and hands over the company’s software to non-profits and educational organizations at a discount or for free.

With the integration of Salesforce.org into Salesforce, the number 1 CRM company will also be acquiring non-profit customers and entities as part of the reformed vertical. It will help Salesforce create the efficiencies for its business needs like increasing revenue margins, which may result in increased costs for non-profits. This acquisition opens up the possibility that Salesforce will expand its technology for educational institutions and non-profits.

3. MapAnything

Recently, Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire MapAnything for an undisclosed amount. This announcement comes months after MapAnything (a North Carolina-based intelligence software and services provider) brought its total raised to nearly $84 million.

MapAnything is a pioneer in location-based intelligence software built upon the Salesforce platform. MapAnything, as the name suggests, assists companies to build location-based workflows and integrates map-based visualization, live GPS Tracking, asset tracking, CRM Integration, and route optimization that improves efficiency for the Sales and Service team and delivers a better and personalized customer experience.

The acquisition of MapAnything to Salesforce will help the world’s most valuable and leading brands accurately plan the strategy of how many people they need, where to put them, how to make them productive and focused, how to track what’s being done in real-time, and what they can learn to move a career forward.

4. Bonobo AI

Bonobo, an Israel-based conversational AI startup, was acquired in May 2019 by Salesforce for $45 million.

Salesforce acquisition with Bonobo conversational AI will enable users to expand on the vision, knowledge, and understanding of Salesforce.

Bonobo AI is a friendly and conversational AI-powered platform that integrates with various sources of customer interaction data such as voice, video, live chat, emails, and other modes of communication to analyze the data.

With the help of Bonobo AI, companies can transform customer conversations into meaningful insights that will enhance sales, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. It empowers companies to examine customer engagement, enable the sales team to identify trends and technologies, improve conservation efforts, and increase customer success.

Bonobo AI will highly increase the power of Salesforce Sales Cloud by leveraging conversational intelligence within the Salesforce CRM platform, enabling companies to use one of their valuable sources of data i.e. customer interaction.

5. Tableau

Salesforce entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tableau at an enterprise value of approximately $15.7 billion. This deal will close in the third quarter of 2019.

Tableau is a business analytics and intelligence platform that enables users to visualize data in an easier and simpler format. Salesforce will be adding this functionality into its various products like an AI platform called Einstein that offers Sales and Marketing Analytics.

Salesforce with Tableau will play an important role in driving digital transformation, empowering companies to make smarter and impactful decisions with deeper data-driven insights, and accelerating innovation. It will enable organizations across the world to easily and effortlessly tap into data across their entire business.

The two key takeaways from this acquisition are:
1. Data analytics will be the core of its offering moving forward.
2. Data visualization as a technology stack was missing from analytics.

Conclusion

These acquisitions by Salesforce really act as catalysts to assist the world’s number 1 CRM company maintain its supremacy. Salesforce has insistently adopted this route with multiple acquisitions in the recent past and these five acquisitions are the newest members to the Salesforce Ohana.