Cloud software firm Salesforce is reportedly planning to buy Microsoft Teams rival and enterprise chat platform Slack within days.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the deal would “unite a giant in business software with a buzzy newcomer on a mission to replace office email”.
The size of the deal has not been revealed yet but Slack, which has a market value of more than $17 billion, can be Salesforce’s largest acquisition ever.
“The companies could reach a deal within days — possibly by the time Salesforce reports its third-quarter financial results,” the report mentioned on Wednesday. Slack is set to report its Q3 earnings on December 9. Salesforce is a leader in the customer relationship management (CRM) market.
Unlike Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, Slack hasn’t seen a meteoric rise as video meetings surge during the pandemic. In October, Microsoft said Teams now had more than 115 million daily active users, up from 75 million in late April. Slack hasn’t given fresh numbers since 2019 when it reported just 12 million users.
In July this year, Slack filed an anti-competitive complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, alleging that the tech giant abused its market dominance to kill the competition in breach of European Union competition law.
Slack alleged that Microsoft has “illegally tied its Teams” product to Office productivity suite and is “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.”
“Slack threatens Microsoft’s hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft’s lock on enterprise software.”
Slack in June joined Amazon in a multi-year agreement to take on its closest rival Microsoft Teams. Under the new deal, all Amazon employees will get access to Slacks office tools.
After claiming that Microsoft Teams is not a real competitor to Slack, Stewart Butterfield, CEO of the enterprise messaging platform, said in May that the success of Slack threatens Microsoft’s entire Office 365 empire.
