Salesforce Strikes a Deal To Buy Informatica in Acquisition Worth $8 Billion

Salesforce, a company known for its wide-ranging customer relationship management (CRM) software and recent purchase of Slack (in 2021, for $27.7 billion, according to CNBC), is now set to make another major acquisition in a deal worth approximately $8 billion in equity value.

In a May 27 press release announcing the agreement, it was noted that those who hold Class A and Class B-1 common stock in Informatica will receive $25 in cash per share as part of the terms of the buyout. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Informatica shares have soared from about $18.81 as of midday on May 23 to $23.83 as of 10:54 a.m. ET on May 27.

Salesforce has built a strong reputation in the AI space, especially in agentic AI, and AI was a central theme in the company’s press release announcing the acquisition. Informatica’s data catalog and its suite of data management tools — including Master Data Management (MDM) — were highlighted as key assets, particularly in the context of their integration into the broader Salesforce ecosystem.

Steve Fisher, president and CTO for Salesforce, was quoted on the matter.

“Truly autonomous, trustworthy AI agents need the most comprehensive understanding of their data. The combination of Informatica’s advanced catalog and metadata capabilities with our Agentforce platform delivers exactly this,” Fisher said.

“Imagine an AI agent that goes beyond simply seeing data points to understanding their full context — origin, transformation, quality, and governance. This clarity, from a unified Salesforce and Informatica solution, will allow all types of businesses to automate more complex processes and make more reliable AI-driven decisions,” he added.

Salesforce Points to ‘Methodical, Patient, and Decisive’ M&A Strategy

Following the previous deals involving the aforementioned purchase of Slack, in addition to the purchase of Tableau in 2019 and MuleSoft in 2018, Salesforce appears to be continuing apace in its targeting of properties ripe for acquisition.

Not entirely so — at least not recklessly — as Salesforce President, CFO, and COO Robin Washington suggested.

“Our acquisition strategy is methodical, patient, and decisive — targeting transformative assets like Informatica when the calculus aligns to maximize customer success,” Washington said.

“This proposed acquisition will be a key enabler for Salesforce’s next phase of AI-driven growth — and we will move quickly to integrate their capabilities and unlock synergies on a fast timeline, particularly in areas like Public Sector, Life Sciences, Healthcare, and Financial Services. We’re laser-focused on accelerated execution to increase our market differentiation and deliver sustained benefits for all Salesforce stakeholders,” she added.