Top 15 Biggest Salesforce Acquisitions and Their Impact
Table of Contents
When it comes to acquisitions, Salesforce definitely plays at high stakes compared to other CRM companies. With over 60 acquisitions under its belt and a fancy figure of $34 billion in annual revenue, Salesforce isn’t just focusing on expanding its portfolio but redefining the entire face of CRM as a whole. It’s almost as if they have a mission to collect every type of technology to empower their offerings, and they are doing this with quite impressive precision.
One of the most traction-gaining aspects of Salesforce’s acquisition strategy is its selection of complementary products and services. Be it the mega buyout of Slack at $27.7 billion or the closing of the Tableau deal at $15.7 billion, each deal is well-strategized to close gaps and build a better customer experience.
Not to any surprise, this strategy is paying off handsomely; Salesforce experienced its cloud revenue go up by 35%, which shows that acquisitions are not merely market share expansion; it’s about delivering real value to customers.
Let’s take a look at Salesforce’s Top 15 Strategic Acquisitions and how these moves are driving Salesforce forward in enterprise technology but have also set new standards for what businesses can achieve in their customer engagement efforts.
List of Top Companies Acquired by Salesforce: How They Shaped CRM
Salesforce has invested in more than 60 acquisitions over the years and the following is the list of Salesforce acquired companies:
- Slack – $27.7B, July 21, 2021
- Tableau – $15.7B, August 1, 2019
- Mulesoft- $6.5B, May 2, 2018
- Demandware – $2.8B, July 11, 2016
- ExactTarget – $2.5B, July 12, 2013
- Own – $1.9B, Sep 5, 2024
- Vlocity- $1.3B, July 21, 2020
- ClickSoftware – $1.35B, October 31, 2019
- Datorama – $800M, August 20, 2018
- Krux- $800M, November 1, 2016
- Quip – $750, August 1, 2016
- Zoomin – $450M, Set to close by Jan 2025
- MapAnything – $225M, May 31, 2019
- Heroku – $212M, January 3, 2011
- Spiff – Undisclosed, Expected to close in Q1 FY25


1. Slack


- Deal Announcement: December 1, 2020
- Acquisition Completion: July 21, 2021
- Deal Value: $27.7 billion
Strategic Intent
Salesforce Slack acquisition aimed at enhancing the Customer 360 platform and rewriting the future of enterprise software. Another purpose of this acquisition aligns with Salesforce’s vision of creating a digital headquarters to facilitate seamless collaboration, which is highly required in remote work environments.
By integrating Slack’s robust communication capabilities, Salesforce aims to provide a unified platform that connects employees, customers, and partners, thereby improving productivity and collaboration across organizations.


Technological Integration
Slack enhances Salesforce’s offerings by providing real-time communication and collaboration tools. Key Salesforce Slack integration includes:
- Sales Cloud: Digital Deal Rooms and Daily Briefs.
- Service Cloud: Swarming and Expert Finder.
- Marketing Cloud: Intelligent insights from Datorama and Tableau.
These features allow users to manage customer interactions directly within Slack, fostering a more efficient workflow. Furthermore, Slack will be deeply integrated into every Salesforce Cloud as the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360. This integration transforms how people communicate, collaborate, and take action on customer information across Salesforce and other business applications, enabling smarter and faster decision-making while creating connected customer experiences.
Outcomes


Since the acquisition, Salesforce has launched several Slack-first initiatives that have transformed businesses’ operations. For instance, the introduction of Slack-First Customer 360 has enabled organizations to access customer data and insights seamlessly within their communication channels.


2. Tableau


- Deal Announcement: June 10, 2019
- Acquisition Completion: Completed on August 1, 2019
- Deal Value: $15.7 billion
Strategic Intent
Salesforce Tableau acquisition was proposed to position Salesforce to accelerate digital transformation across different industries. It was to empower every customer with unified and visually presentable data for deeper insights, more intelligent decision-making, connected customer experience, and fostering innovation.


Technological Integration
So, how does Tableau fit into the Salesforce ecosystem? First, it brings self-service analytics to the table. Here is how Salesforce has given space to Tableau in its system:
- Integration with Salesforce: Tableau is now integrated into Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform, allowing users to access powerful analytics directly in their CRM workflows. Einstein Analytics has been rebranded as Tableau CRM, merging data visualization with machine learning features.
- New Product Launches: Tableau introduced products like Tableau Pulse, designed for quick insights using AI, expanding its reach beyond traditional analytics.
- Providing intuitive data visualization tools that empower users of all skill levels.
- Integrating seamlessly with Salesforce’s ecosystem, enabling real-time data analysis and reporting.
- Offering features such as predictive analytics through Einstein Discovery enriches decision-making processes.
Outcomes
Post-acquisition, Tableau continued to operate as a standalone application while Salesforce integrated its capabilities and evolved its product, Einstein Analytics, into Tableau CRM and now CRM Analytics. This integration has helped users with data accessibility and user engagement. Organizations can also generate out-of-the-box analytics reports and gain insights that drive strategic initiatives. The collaboration has increased investment in developing new BI tools and capabilities, solidifying Tableau’s role within the Salesforce ecosystem.


3. MuleSoft


- Deal Announcement: March 20, 2018
- Acquisition Completion: Completed on May 2, 2018
- Deal Value: $6.5 billion
Why Salesforce Acquired Mulesoft
The reason Salesforce acquired MuleSoft was all about taking its integration game a level up and assisting businesses in connecting applications, tools and platforms seamlessly with Salesforce. MulesSoft brought on Anypoint Platform to help customers get a unified view of data, no matter where they are. With its API management capability, Salesforce added an additional offering for businesses to handle, secure, and monitor their integration between different applications and systems.
This way, Salesforce has new opportunities for cross-selling and upselling its CRM products. With MuleSoft’s established presence in various industries, Salesforce can effectively penetrate new markets and enhance its service offerings to existing clients, further solidifying its position as a comprehensive solution provider.
How It Works Together
Mulesoft’s Anypoint Platform is now a key player in the Salesforce ecosystem. It allows businesses to create application networks linking enterprise apps and data across various environments, whether in the cloud or on-premises. This means users can easily access and utilize data from multiple sources, leading to more intelligent, more connected customer experiences.
What’s Happened Since the Acquisition
Since its acquisition with Salesforce, Mulesoft has continued to operate independently but with many more resources at its disposal. One exciting development is the launch of MuleSoft Composer for Salesforce, which helps automate business processes across different systems. Mulesoft has integrated its platform with Salesforce products like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, making everything work together even better.
4. Demandware


- Deal Announcement: June 1, 2016
- Acquisition Year: Completed on July 11, 2016
- Deal Value: $2.8 billion
Why Salesforce Acquired Demandware
The acquisition of Demandware marked a considerable step in the B2C market and bridged the gap in Salesforce’s product offerings. While Salesforce had already made its place in the B2B cloud software market, it focused on recognizing the growing need for eCommerce solutions. .
Salesforce wanted to offer all its clients and end-customers a connected, personalized shopping experience. Demandware seems to be a perfect fit that can empower Salesforce to help retailers deliver customized online, design & implemented omnichannel retail strategy and optimize in-store customer interactions.


Technological Integration
Demandware was quickly rebranded as Salesforce Commerce Cloud and integrated into Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform. This integration allows businesses to utilize CRM features with eCommerce capabilities and unified information on customer interactions across all touchpoints, including sales, service, and marketing.
Outcomes Since the Acquisition
Since the acquisition, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has attracted major brands like L’Oréal and Lands’ End and impressed them with its groundbreaking innovations like headless commerce, SFRA, omnichannel, order management system, AI-powered personalization, mobile optimization, and much more. This has helped retailers to create customized shopping experiences without being stuck with traditional front-end systems.
5. ExactTarget


- Announcement Date: June 4, 2013
- Acquisition Completion: July 12, 2013
- Deal Value: Approximately $2.5 billion
Strategic Intent
After launching Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, Salesforce’s next move was to cover something for marketers. A platform is aimed at strengthening its marketing offerings. This acquisition of ExactTarget empowered Salesforce with a robust marketing automation solution, allowing them to create a dedicated platform they branded as Salesforce Marketing Cloud for the businesses looking to engage with customers across multiple channels—email, social media, mobile, and web. This acquisition positioned Salesforce as a leader in marketing technology, catering to the evolving needs of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) globally.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud now caters to both B2B and B2C marketing needs. B2C focuses on shorter transactional decision-making cycles, while B2B is more oriented towards Account Engagement, part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud suite.
Technological Integration
ExactTarget’s integration into Salesforce led to the creation of the Marketing Cloud, which now encompasses various products designed for multichannel marketing. Key features include:
- Combination of Capabilities: Salesforce combined ExactTarget’s capabilities, including marketing automation and campaign management, with what Salesforce had in its toolset, including social marketing, consisting of listening with Radian6, publishing with Buddy Media, and advertising with Social.com, into a comprehensive marketing platform that enables companies to interact with customers across email, social, mobile, and the web.
- Unified Customer Platform: Through integration, unified customer platforms have enabled organizations to change their approach from engaging customers throughout the life cycle stages to customer-centric. The merged sales, service, and marketing functionalities within a unified platform provided an integral view of customer engagement compared to previous approaches.
- AI and personalization: Using Salesforce’s Einstein AI, this platform allows for more curated marketing experiences. Examples in this area include custom-product recommendations, optimized sorting and filtering of content, and more innovative search results based on personal behaviour and preferences.
Outcomes
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) has been quite successful since the introduction of its Growth Edition, which works cohesively with Salesforce Data Cloud. It’s all about AI-powered automation, real-time segmentation, and personalized campaigns, which make data even more transparent and quality-rich. This makes SFMC a robust solution for delivering targeted and engaging customer experiences in business.
6. Own


- Deal Announcement: September 5, 2024
- Acquisition Year: Expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025
- Deal Value: Estimation is $1.9 billion in cash, net of the value of the approximately 10% of outstanding shares currently owned by Salesforce.
Strategic Intent
Own is a leading provider of data protection and management solutions, formerly known as OwnBackup. Through its solutions, users will ensure their mission-critical data’s availability, security, and adherence to compliances. This acquisition shows that Salesforce believes in providing secure, end-to-end solutions that protect its most valuable data and take its customers through data security and compliance changes.
Technological Integration
With a massive investment in acquiring Own, Salesforce plans to integrate Own’s enterprise data backup and disaster recovery solutions. This will help . Salesforce strengthened its offerings like Salesforce Backup, Data Mask, and Salesforce Shield. Here is what else Salesforce is planning:
- Comprehensive Data Protection: Own guarantees that customer data spanning Salesforce, AWS, and Microsoft applications remains secure and recoverable, thereby addressing vital requirements for data resilience.
- Advanced Analytics: Own’s tools help assess historical data and help reveal trends that facilitate smarter decision-making, all while seamlessly aligning with Salesforce’s focus on offering AI-driven insights.
- Efficient Data Archiving: Own’s archiving solutions empower organizations to transfer data from the Salesforce Org, optimizing performance and enhancing the flexibility of data management.
Outcome
The acquisition is yet to close, but as per Salesforce, Own is ready to help them increase customer trust by providing robust data protection and management solutions, highlighting the core values of Salesforce, i.e. securing customer data with the advancements in the ecosystem. Furthermore, with Own’s resources and Salesforce’s support, the company is positioned for substantial growth in the data protection and management sector.
7. Vlocity


- Acquisition Date: February 26, 2020
- Deal Completion Date: July 21, 2020
- Purchase Price: $1.33 billion
Strategic Intent
Built natively on the Salesforce platform, Vlocity offers tailored CRM solutions for industries like media, communications, insurance and utilities. The acquisition aligns perfectly with Salesforce’s long-term vision of building industry-specific cloud solutions. Salesforce has already launched Financial Services Cloud and Health Cloud, recognizing the need for specialized solutions. With this decision, Vlocity catered to Salesforce’s exact requirements by equipping it with templates and expertise catering to specific industry needs, allowing it to deliver out-of-the-box solutions (comprehensive and backed by third-party expertise).
Technological Integration
Following the acquisition, Vlocity was rebranded as Salesforce Industries, which signified its role in developing tailored solutions for various verticals. This move allowed Salesforce to enhance its offerings in communications, media, utilities, insurance, health, and government sectors.
- Development of Industry Clouds: One of the most change-making outcomes of the acquisition was the quick integration, development and launch of several industry-specific clouds, including:
- Energy & Utilities Cloud
- Media Cloud
- Communications Cloud
- Public Sector Solutions
- Consumer Goods Cloud
- Manufacturing Cloud
- Sustainability Cloud
- Automotive Cloud
- Nonprofit Cloud
- Vertical-Specific Customizations: Vlocity’s pre-built industry solutions are initially built on the Salesforce Lightning Platform, meaning faster integration with the Salesforce ecosystem exists. Therefore, enterprises can use customized functionality in policy management for insurance and customer onboarding for telco without extensive customization.
- Custom Data Models: Each industry-based cloud application has custom data models that fit with specific business processes so an organization can run more efficiently and effectively.
- Cross-Industry Collaboration: With a separate business unit for verticals, ideas are cross-pollinated between different industries. Innovation is encouraged by the best practices of one area that are transferred and used across others.
8. ClickSoftware


- Acquisition Announcement Date: August 7, 2019
- Deal Completion Date: October 31, 2019
- Purchase Price: $1.35 billion
Strategic Intent
The acquisition of ClickSoftware was another strategic move that Salesforce made to amplify the capabilities of Salesforce Service Cloud. Through the acquisition, ClickSoftware aims to improve field service management through advanced scheduling, optimization technologies and real-time updates for customer satisfaction as part of Salesforce Field Service Lightning. From service employees to contact centres and field technicians, ClickSoftware’s tool will facilitate connected and intelligent customer services, addressing the growing demand for efficient field service solutions as customer expectations evolve towards faster and more tailored engagements.
Technological Integration
ClickSoftware got integrated into Salesforce’s offerings as:
- Field Service Lightning: This platform now benefits from ClickSoftware’s advanced scheduling and optimization features, assisting in-house and on-field teams with seamless coordination of field operations.
- Real-Time Updates: If a technician is delayed, dispatchers can quickly reroute another technician, ensuring customer appointments are met without disruption. These updates are reflected across the entire Salesforce platform, providing visibility for sales, customer service, and field teams.
- IoT Integration: Salesforce combined ClickSoftware with features of Field Service Lightning to leverage IoT technologies, hence improving operational efficiency and responsiveness.
Outcome
With the acquisition, Salesforce integrated the cutting-edge scheduling and optimization technology from ClickSoftware into Field Service Lightning to support intelligent scheduling and real-time updates toward enhanced customer satisfaction. It has strategically positioned Salesforce to better compete against industry majors while creating innovation and solutions for industries.
9. Datorama


- Deal Announcement: July 16, 2018.
- Deal Completion Date: August 20, 2018.
- Deal Value: $800 million
Strategic Intent
The primary objective of acquiring Datorama was to integrate its advanced marketing intelligence and analytics capabilities with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This integration aims to offer marketers greater data integration, intelligence, and analytics, empowering them to unlock in-depth insights across different marketing channels and data sources. By doing so, Salesforce not only provided businesses with a 360-degree view of their customers but equipped them with tools for hyper-personalization and effective marketing strategies.
Technological Integration
Here is a quick look at how Datorama integration enhances Salesforce’s existing tools:
- AI-Powered Analytics: It consolidates data from several marketing channels into one unified dashboard, making it convenient for marketers to get actionable insights.
- Seamless Collaboration: Integration with Google Analytics 360 and Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Einstein allows users to leverage comprehensive analytics for improved campaign performance.
Outcomes
After rebranding as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Intelligence, Datorama has been instrumental in automating reporting processes and optimizing multiple marketing campaigns through enhanced data intelligence. This acquisition served the purpose of delivering markets a space where their efforts are simplified and meaningful insights improved.
10. Krux


- Deal Announcement: October 3, 2016.
- Deal Completion Date: November 1, 2016.
- Deal Value: $700 million, paid in cash and stock.
Strategic Intent
This Salesforce Krux acquisition happened to cater critical requirements pertaining to Marketing Cloud offerings, which is to be precise in Data Management Platforms (DMPs). Salesforce recognized the need for advanced audience management and data integration capabilities. By merging Krux’s potential with Marketing Cloud, Salesforce introduced a tool that leverages customer data and external interaction data, resulting in significant improvements in personalization and engagement strategies.
Technological Integration
Right after the acquisition, Krux was rebranded as Salesforce DMP, which later evolved as Audience Studio in Marketing Cloud, offering marketers power-packed data management tools that help with:
- Enhanced Customer Profiles: By consolidating customer data from multiple sources, marketers can gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour.
- Cross-Channel Engagement: Audience Studio enables brands to manage customer journeys across various digital channels, ensuring a cohesive experience.
- Targeted Campaigns: Marketers can identify new prospects who share attributes with existing customers, driving more relevant messaging and brand experiences.
Outcomes
The integration has allowed businesses to tap into Krux’s extensive global reach and machine-driven segmentation for better targeting.
11. Quip


- Deal Announcement: July 30, 2016.
- Deal Completion Date: August 1, 2016
- Purchase Price: $750 million, consisting of cash and stock.
Strategic Intent
Salesforce’s acquisition of Quip was driven by the need to modernize document processing and improve collaboration within its ecosystem. Referred to as a “living document platform”, Quip integrates documents, spreadsheets, and communication tools, allowing teams to work more efficiently.
Technological Integration
Following is how Quip get amalgamated into Salesforce’s offerings:
- Bi-Directional Sync: This feature allows CRM data to be integrated directly into Quip documents, allowing information to be more accessible and actionable.
- Live Apps: Users can embed calendars, checklists, videos and other interactive elements within documents, resulting in real-time collaboration.
- Salesforce Anywhere: In 2021, Quip was rebranded as Salesforce Anywhere, emphasizing enhanced collaboration features that allow users to chat and receive real-time alerts while working on shared records.
Outcomes and Milestones
By becoming one of the key components in the Salesforce ecosystem, Quip has helped users manage projects and collaborate seamlessly across teams.
The platform has attracted a growing user base, with its capabilities being leveraged by organizations seeking to enhance productivity in remote and hybrid work environments.


12. Zoomin


- Deal Announcement: September 24, 2024.
- Deal Completion Date: Set to close in January 2025.
- Purchase Price: $450 million.
Strategic Intent
The acquisition of Zoomin, an enterprise knowledge platform that organizes product documentation in one dedicated place, is an idea that aligns with Salesforce’s vision of using unstructured data to enhance customer experiences. By integrating the capabilities of Zoomin with its Data Cloud, Salesforce aims to strengthen its AI tools, particularly Agentforce, which automates the tasks associated with customer services. This strategic move is important because it helps businesses access necessary information quickly, accelerate response times, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
Technological Integration
Zoomin is expected to uplift Salesforce’s offerings through:
- Unstructured Data Management: By centralizing knowledge from various sources, Zoomin will help Salesforce unlock valuable insights that can inform AI-driven interactions.
- Enhanced AI Capabilities: The integration will enable Agentforce to gain intelligence at the next level and deliver more personalized and context-aware responses, improving the efficiency of customer service teams.
- Support for Service Cloud: Service Cloud customers will benefit from automated service interactions, allowing for faster resolutions and higher satisfaction rates.
This technological synergy positions Salesforce as a leader in the enterprise AI landscape, enabling it to provide comprehensive solutions that meet the evolving needs of its customers.
Outcomes
This Salesforce move will enable service teams to resolve queries more efficiently without escalating issues to live agents, thereby lowering operational costs and enhancing service quality.
13. MapAnything


- Deal Announcement: April 17, 2019.
- Deal Completion Date: May 31, 2019.
- Deal Value: $225 million
Strategic Intent
The reason Salesforce acquired MapAnything was to enhance the offerings of Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. Salesforce planned to leverage its advanced location-based intelligence software to empower field sales and service teams to operate with enhanced context, enabling them to address customer demands more effectively.
Technological Integration
MapAnything enhances Salesforce’s platform through:
- Map-Based Visualization: This provides the capability to see the locations of customers and to enable route optimization for field teams.
- Asset tracking and route optimization: By combining all these capabilities, MapAnything helps organizations manage their resources more effectively, thereby providing timely service delivery.
- Geofencing and contextual triggers: These tools empower businesses to automate workflows predicated on geographic data, enhancing responsiveness and operational efficiency.
Outcomes
In summary, Salesforce’s acquisition of MapAnything significantly strengthened its position in the CRM market by enhancing its location-based intelligence capabilities. This strategic integration not only improves operational efficiency for field teams but also highlights what Salesforce is willing to offer through innovative technology solutions.
14. Heroku


- Deal Announcement: December 8, 2010.
- Deal Completion Date: January 3, 2011.
- Acquisition Price: $212 million
Strategic Intent
The acquisition of Heroku, a leading Ruby platform-as-a-service, allowed Salesforce to integrate Heroku’s capabilities, attract developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who seek an open and scalable cloud platform for building social and mobile applications. This move enhances Salesforce’s position as a comprehensive cloud technology provider.
Technological Integration
Heroku enhances Salesforce’s offerings through:
- Ruby-Based Application Development: Heroku supports the creation of real-time, collaborative applications that can easily integrate with Salesforce data.
- Open Environment: Heroku was designed to work seamlessly in an open environment, allowing developers to deploy applications without the complexities associated with traditional hardware and software setups.
- Multi-Tenant Architecture: Built on the same multi-tenant philosophy as Salesforce’s Force.com platform, Heroku allows for efficient resource management and scalability.
Salesforce Heroku acquisition helped both developers and businesses, allowing them to build innovative applications that complement Salesforce’s extensive CRM capabilities.
Outcomes
Since the acquisition, Heroku has been powering over 110,000 applications, greatly expanding the developer community of Salesforce. The integration allows businesses to create customer-centric apps connected directly to Salesforce CRM data.
15. Spiff


- Deal Announcement: December 2023
- Deal Completion Date: Expected to close in Q1 of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025
- Deal Value: Not disclosed
Strategic Intent
Salesforce Spiff acquisition is one of the well-planned strategies to empower the CRM’s sales enablement capabilities. By integrating Spiff’s innovative incentive compensation management (ICM) software, Salesforce aims to address common issues, including the complexity and inefficiency of managing sales commissions. Spiff not only automates commission calculations but also provides real-time visibility and transparency to compensation plans, which is essential for assisting the sales team and aligning their efforts with business objectives.
By integrating Spiff into its ecosystem, Salesforce aims to empower Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and financial leaders to better align compensation plans with desired outcomes, ultimately driving top-line growth.
Technological integration
After the acquisition is complete, Spiff will be integrated into Salesforce Sales Cloud, which will increase native performance management capabilities. This integration will provide user access to real-time commission report insights, allowing sales teams to manage their plans effectively. In addition, its functionalities will enhance collaboration between a sales and financial operations team as it ensures that compensation strategy is aligned with business direction.
Outcome
The acquisition is expected to bring significant benefits to Salesforce by providing a trusted platform that increases transparency and strengthens sales efforts. The Spiff acquisition is just another example of how Salesforce is focusing on building its ecosystem with cutting-edge solutions. However, Spiff is only one part of the entire game.
To truly understand how Salesforce manages to maintain its competitive edge in the CRM market, we need to explore its acquisition strategy.
How Salesforce Wins with Its Acquisition Strategy
Salesforce’s acquisitions strategy is a dynamic and calculated move that does not simply mean adding new products but would create an all-inclusive ecosystem where businesses can seamlessly navigate all their operations.
Given its commanding market share of 21.8%, or more than the combined share of its four largest rivals, Salesforce has solidified its position as the preeminent CRM provider, a distinction IDC has recognized for the 11th consecutive year. Source: Backlinko
But how does Salesforce maintain this competitive edge? The answer lies in its strategic approach to acquisitions and its capability to identify and buy other innovative companies that fill some of the gaps in these critical areas, like eCommerce, data analytics, or artificial intelligence.
Let’s demystify the core of Salesforce acquisition strategy:


1. Strategic Importance: Vision Alignment with Value
Talking about a topmost concern, Salesforce prioritizes strategic importance while evaluating potential acquisitions. Each target is rigorously assessed to determine how well it aligns with Salesforce’s long-term vision of enabling businesses to engage with their customers more effectively.
This isn’t just about introducing new features; it’s about delivering the expected value to customers. For instance, since 2018, Salesforce has acquired several companies, and nearly 28% of them have received previous investments from Salesforce Ventures. This “try before you buy” approach allows Salesforce to identify an opportunity to know whether the company is part of their ecosystem and thus commit fully to the acquisition of the company.
2. Market Dominance: Defeat the Competition with Precision
Next in consideration, we have market impact. Salesforce acquisitions are not solely targeted to expand its portfolio but are a strategic move to reshape the CRM landscape. By acquiring companies that are into constant innovation in what they bring on board, Salesforce has been outpacing the competition.


According to Backlinko, Salesforce has a 21.8% share in the CRM market, which is more than its leading competitors combined. Apparently, Salesforce left Microsoft and Oracle behind at 5.9% and 3.5%, respectively, due to its integration of advanced technologies into customer engagement and operational efficiency.
3. Technological Innovation: The Engine That Drives Customer Success
Finally, it all boils down to technological advancement. With each purchase, Salesforce is creating an opportunity to integrate technological capabilities into its vast ecosystem, allowing businesses to leverage those tools and optimize operations to build more meaningful terms with customers.
By acquiring companies like MuleSoft, Salesforce has improved its ability to connect applications and data sources seamlessly. Not only did MuleSoft become the support system for Salesforce Integration Cloud, but it also made real-time data accessible for informed decision-making.
The focus on innovation is evident in Salesforce’s recent acquisitions, such as Own Company for $1.9 billion, which enhances data protection capabilities and is an increasingly essential component of customer trust in the contemporary digital environment.
As we enter the next ten years, Salesforce will continue to innovate through the purchase of other companies. The addition of AI and machine learning to its products will likely create better CRM solutions than before, which can predict what customers want and handle routine tasks automatically.


Looking Forward
Salesforce Acquisition strategies have evolved for Salesforce, which has made it one of the topmost companies in the CRM market and paved the way for further innovation. With more than 65+ notable acquisitions, such as MuleSoft, Tableau, and Slack, Salesforce has focused on the integration of advanced technologies to enhance customer engagement and streamline business operations.
As a trusted Salesforce Summit consulting partner, Cyntexa has deep expertise in integrating the powerful ecosystem of Salesforce in order to maximize the benefits of these acquisitions. With a team of more than 400+ cloud professionals, we specialize in a variety of Salesforce services like Consulting, Implementation, Integration, AppExchange App Development, and more.
Connect with us today to leverage the capabilities of Salesforce acquired platforms. Our team is here to work with you in implementing just the right solutions for you and your business. We’re here to support your journey—let’s start a conversation today.
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Frequently Asked Questions
As of 2024, Salesforce has completed over 65+ acquisitions. This aggressive acquisition strategy has allowed the company to diversify its product offerings and enhance its technology stack significantly. Notable acquisitions include MuleSoft, Tableau, and Slack, which have all played crucial roles in expanding Salesforce's capabilities in integration, analytics, and collaboration.
The largest acquisition in Salesforce's history is the purchase of Slack for $27.7 billion in December 2020. This strategic move was designed to enhance collaboration within Salesforce’s ecosystem by integrating Slack’s messaging platform into its Customer 360 suite. The acquisition has positioned Salesforce to better compete with Microsoft Teams and other collaboration tools in the market.
Yes, Salesforce owns Slack. The acquisition was finalized in July 2021 and was part of Salesforce's strategy to enhance its collaboration capabilities. By incorporating Slack into its offerings, Salesforce aims to create a more unified experience for users, enabling seamless communication and collaboration across teams and departments within organizations.
Salesforce acquired Tableau on August 1, 2019, for approximately $15.7 billion. This acquisition was pivotal for enhancing Salesforce's analytics capabilities, allowing users to visualize data more effectively and derive actionable insights. Tableau's powerful data visualization tools complement Salesforce’s existing CRM offerings, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions.