With an expected acquisition price of $25 per share, Salesforce is close to buying Informatica – a specialist in data management solutions.

As recently as last year, talks between the two companies had failed – at a significantly higher valuation near $10 billion. Informatica's stock had come under pressure in recent months and fell below a market capitalization of $7 billion. After a Wall Street Journal report on the resumption of talks, the stock surged 17% to $22.55 on Friday.

For Salesforce, the acquisition would be the largest since the purchase of Slack in 2021, which cost around 28 billion dollars. In the years before, Salesforce had already acquired Tableau Software for more than 15 billion dollars and MuleSoft for around 6.5 billion dollars – all strategic acquisitions to strengthen cloud and data capabilities.

Informatica, based in Redwood City (California), offers software for managing and analyzing large amounts of data both in the cloud and on-premises. Customers include Unilever and Toyota. The company was taken private in 2015 by Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for $5.3 billion and relisted in 2021. Today, Permira holds almost a third of the shares, and CPPIB around a quarter.

The transaction falls into a phase in which Salesforce, under CEO Marc Benioff, is intensifying its strategic focus on artificial intelligence (AI agents). Parallel to this, the company streamlined its course in 2023 under the pressure of several activist investors – including Elliott and Starboard Value. Mason Morfit from ValueAct took a seat on the board and has since led the M&A committee. The upcoming acquisition of Informatica is likely a result of this realignment.

Salesforce will present its quarterly figures on Wednesday. With a market capitalization of over 260 billion dollars, the company remains one of the dominant players in the cloud business – and sends a clear signal with the planned acquisition: data management remains a central battleground.