US cloud and sales software giant Salesforce has revealed it’s buying software maker MuleSoft for around $6.5 billion — the latest in a string of new acquisitions by the San Francisco-based company.
The cash-and-stock deal will see Salesforce pay $36 in cash and 0.0711 shares of its common stock for each Mulesoft share — a 36% premium on Mulesoft’s price before the deal was announced.
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Mulesoft shares shot up 27% to $42 per share after the deal was announced.
Mulesoft makes a platform that helps Fortune 500 companies stitch together disparate software applications, data, and devices and it’s thought Salesforce will use the tech to unite its vast swathes of customer data across different cloud products.
The acquisition will see Mulesoft power Salesforce’s new integration cloud, enabling “all enterprises to surface any data” and driving “deep and intelligent customer experiences” a joint company statement said.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said:
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By GlobalDataTogether, Salesforce and MuleSoft will enable customers to connect all of the information throughout their enterprise across all public and private clouds and data sources–radically enhancing innovation.
Greg Schott, Mulesoft Chairman and CEO said:
With the full power of Salesforce behind us, we have a tremendous opportunity to realise our vision of the application network even faster and at scale.
The deal, which is scheduled to close by 31 July, will accelerate the digital transformation of Mulesoft’s 1,200 customers, who include the likes of Coca-Cola, Barclays, Unilever and Mount Sinai, the statement added.
Why it matters:
The move marks San Francisco-based Salesforce’s largest acquisition and demonstrates that chief executive Marc Benioff’s is on a mission to expand the company’s cloud-based portfolio.
The deal will also help Salesforce compete with cloud computing rivals Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft.
Salesforce currently holds 18% of the customer relationship management software market, compared to Oracle’s 9.4% slice, according to market intelligence firm International Data.
Background:
Founded in 2006, Mulesoft went public last year and had previously received $128 million in a 2015 funding round led by Salesforce.
In 2016 Salesforce acquired a number of new companies including data management platform Krux and mobile software suite Quip. It bought cloud company CloudCraze early this month.
