Salesforce buys data boss Informatica for $8 billion
Salesforce announced Tuesday its acquisition of Informatica, a cloud data management firm, for $8 billion in an all-equity transaction. The deal aims to enhance Salesforce’s AI and data infrastructure capabilities.
Salesforce will pay $25 per share in cash for Informatica’s Class A and Class B-1 common stock, accounting for its prior investment in the company, according to the terms of the agreement.
Informatica, established in 1993, serves over 5,000 customers across more than 100 countries. At the time of publication, the company had a market capitalization of $7.1 billion.
The acquisition is intended to strengthen Salesforce’s agentic AI ambitions by providing more data infrastructure and governance. This is expected to enable its AI agents to operate “safely, responsibly, and at scale across the modern enterprise,” according to a company press release.
“Together, we’ll supercharge Agentforce, Data Cloud, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Customer 360, enabling autonomous agents to act with intelligence, context, and confidence across every enterprise,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in the press release. “This is a transformational step in delivering enterprise-grade AI that is safe, responsible, and deeply integrated with the world’s data.”
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Reports of Salesforce’s interest in Informatica first emerged in April 2024. In response to these reports, Informatica issued a public statement denying any sale discussions with Salesforce.
This acquisition follows Salesforce’s September acquisition of data management firm Own Company for $1.9 billion in cash.
At the time of the Own Company acquisition, Salesforce general manager Steve Fisher stated in a press release, “Data security has never been more critical, and Own’s proven expertise and products will enhance our ability to offer robust data protection and management solutions to our customers.”