Salesforce is buying workplace chat app Slack for $27.7 billion

Following weeks of rumours, startup chat app Slack has been sold to Salesforce for $27.7 billion USD (roughly $35.8 billion CAD).

For those who are unaware, Salesforce is a customer relations management software company that offers software to businesses to make it easier for them to communicate with their customers.

“Under the terms of the agreement, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $27.7 billion based on the closing price of Salesforce’s common stock on November 30, 2020,” reads a press release regarding the acquisition.

Salesforce’s press release mentions that it plans to combine Slack, a workplace-based chat app, and its Salesforce Customer 360 platform, to “create the operating system for the new way to work…”

However, it’s unclear exactly what this means for the future of the platform and Slack’s users.

Slack first started as a gaming company back in 2009. As of October 2019, the platform had 12 million daily active users. While the chat platform hasn’t released concrete user numbers since then, its user base has likely increased significantly with companies switching over to remote workflows amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company is led by Canadian Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.

Slack has lost nearly half of its market value since going public back in April 2019. The company has also failed to turn a profit during the last three quarters and faces increased competition from similar platforms like Microsoft Teams.

Source: Salesforce