Salesforce to acquire Slack for $28 billion

Salesforce announced its intention Tuesday to acquire workplace messaging service Slack for $27.7 billion in cash and stock.

If completed, the deal will be one of the biggest software mergers in recent memory and the latest in a series of bets on remote work by tech companies.

Stewart Butterfield, who founded Slack in 2010, will stay on as CEO of the company.

“Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise software history, with an incredible ecosystem around it,” Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said in a statement. “This is a match made in heaven.”

The deal is scheduled to close sometime in the middle of 2021, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. Salesforce noted in its press release that it has the backing of Slack shareholders representing 55 percent of shares.

Salesforce, the marketing and sales software company, has a penchant for acquiring companies, including mobile software provider Vlocity earlier this year for $1.3 billion.

Slack has seen demand for its service skyrocket during the coronavirus pandemic, as many people work from home.

It has also faced challenges from competitors like Microsoft’s Teams product.

In July Slack filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commision, alleging that the Silicon Valley giant is using its market dominance to crowd out competition in the workplace messaging market.