Salesforce announced it has closed a $27.7 billion acquisition of the communication platform Slack in a decisive step towards entering the field of remote work technology.
The acquisition was announced in December during a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was increasing opportunity for apps such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack. Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff stated, “Together we’ll define the future of enterprise software, creating the digital HQ that enables every organization to deliver customer and employee success from anywhere.”
Chief Executive Officer and cofounder of Slack, Stewart Butterfield, will be leading the new subsidiary in Salesforce. The United States Department of Justice has also closed its antitrust investigation of the acquisition.
Several Salesforce partners have already begun including Slack in their workflow. OSF Digital, based in Quebec with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Massachusetts has already included Slack into its Salesforce portfolio for customer support and service cases. New York-based Silverline has also observed opportunities from Salesforce subsidiaries Tableau and MuleSoft.
Slack currently has 2,597 employed and its stock recently increased 85% to $242.16. At the end of April 2021, Slack had 169,000 paid customers and made $273.4 million in the last three months.
