The Gist
- Salesforce-Informatica acquisition. Salesforce’s potential acquisition of Informatica, a deal that could have significantly boosted Salesforce’s data capabilities, fell apart due to disagreements on the deal’s terms, despite the promising enhancements it could have offered in data integration, quality control and customer insights.
- Implications for Salesforce’s strategy. The acquisition would have been a strategic move for Salesforce, following its largest acquisition of Slack in 2020, aiming to enhance its data ecosystem and strengthen its position in data analytics and management through improved AI systems and data management solutions.
- Future acquisition prospects. Could HubSpot be on table? With the Informatica deal off the table, speculation arises about Salesforce potentially targeting other companies like HubSpot. This shift comes as Salesforce seeks to maintain its competitive edge in CRM and marketing automation amidst growing competition and previous acquisitions such as ExactTarget and Pardot.
Salesforce will not acquire Informatica? Well, it was fun to chat about, anyway.
The mega deal that would create a data queen — and represent one of Salesforce’s biggest acquisition to date — fell through because the companies could not agree on terms of the deal, according to multiple reports.
Informatica, a data management software company, is valued at more than $10 billion. Salesforce, the world’s No. 1 customer relationship management software company, which built its customer data capabilities thanks in part to major acquisitions, is valued at $261.71 billion. Salesforce is coming off its largest acquisition: its 2020 grab of Slack Technologies, the workplace chat application, for $27.7 billion.
Enhancing Salesforce’s Data Ecosystem
Salesforce’s acquisition of Informatica — first reported by the Wall Street Journal April 12 — was primed to enhance its data functionalities, especially in data integration, quality control and customer insights. This potential acquisition reflected a larger trend of mergers in the software industry, intended to boost Salesforce’s capabilities in data analytics and management.
By incorporating Informatica into Salesforce’s data ecosystem, the company would likely improve its generative AI systems and the Mulesoft infrastructure, enabling more effective data cataloging and sophisticated data management solutions like master data management and data governance.
For CMOs and CX professionals, this development would herald a push toward more rapid innovation in managing customer experiences. Salesforce could have equipped these professionals with robust data tools to make quicker, more precise decisions, thereby improving customer interactions and potentially driving higher revenue growth and stronger competitive advantage.
That was the plan, anyway.
Related Article: Could Salesforce-Informatica Deal Create a Data Queen?
Is HubSpot a Better Acquisition Target for Salesforce?
So what’s next for Salesforce and this tech space? Besides, that is, feeding the inevitable acquisition rumor mill?
What about feeding that engine with one more: Salesforce acquires HubSpot. A Cambridge, Mass.-based marketing automation and CRM provider, HubSpot got into the global conversation when sources discussed a potential Google-HubSpot merger earlier this month. Many felt that deal unlikely to materialize thanks to the U.S. government’s anti-trust campaign preventing such mega deals. Adobe-Figma, for instance, never saw the light of day.
Sean Parnell, president of Innovaxis Marketing and a CMSWire Contributor, said he’s got insights that HubSpot (and Zoho) have been eating into Salesforce sales for both CRM and marketing automation. That, he added, may be part of the reason why Salesforce rebranded Pardot as “Account Engagement” and released ProSuite to compete with the whole HubSpot platform. Salesforce acquired B2C marketing automation provider ExactTarget in 2013, and that came with B2B marketing automation provider Pardot.
“So, this is why I think Salesforce should be more interested in HubSpot than Google,” Parnell said. “I guess Google can get in the game with owning HubSpot, but I haven’t heard any marketing expert clarify what the synergy would be though it would be interesting if HubSpot would be the core of creating a marketing operating system.”
Not that Parnell doesn’t see some potential for Google-HubSpot. Anyone effectively conducting inbound and outbound marketing likely uses Google Analytics, Search Console, Ads, My Business and YouTube extensively, according to Parnell. “It would be interesting if the HubSpot interface could report on all of that,” he said. “HootSuite’s increased pricing also makes HubSpot’s social media functionality more attractive. Add in what Moz, SEMRush and maybe SpyFu — especially gauging your keyword rankings — and you could have a much more powerful marketing reporting platform at the very least.”
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