Salesforce spent $1.9B to acquire Own Company in September this year. The acquisition, which has been officially sealed and finalized in cash this week, is Salesforce’s next step in enhancing the safeguarding of their customers’ data.
However, this could come as bad news for some. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Salesforce representatives have informed Own employees that certain roles will no longer be required, and that many will be phased out of the company very soon.
Salesforce’s New Approach to Acquisitions
Marc Benioff has been on an acquisition frenzy over recent years, spending $15.7B in 2019 to acquire analytics platform Tableau, before trumping this figure in 2021 with the $27.7B acquisition of messaging platform Slack. From these mergers came a whole new workforce, with the transition of 4,200 employees from Tableau and just over 2,500 from Slack.
This emergence of new talent has caused a substantial increase in the company’s overall employee tally and operational costs, prompting a review of the company’s acquisition strategy.
Salesforce has had to downsize their workforce significantly to streamline operations, with over 1000 workers being laid off this year alone.
Salesforce disbanded their mergers and acquisitions committee last year to focus on optimizing existing operations – a move welcomed by investors at the time.
However, the company has not entirely paused acquisitions, with several smaller deals this year – such as Zoomin and PredictSpring – and now the notable purchase of Own. This acquisition reflects Salesforce’s need to impress investors with growth, positioning Own as a strategic addition to their portfolio, in the same way that Marketing Cloud and Tableau have grown since being acquired.
While it’s clear that Salesforce sees value in Own, it remains to be seen how the company will integrate Own’s technology into its existing stack and whether Own’s vast historical data will play a role in Salesforce’s future AI strategy.
The company’s presentation to Own employees stated that some roles will be eliminated by 31 January 2025, while others will face a transitional period lasting 3-12 months.
Final Thoughts
After years of expansion, it feels as though Salesforce – as well as many others in the tech industry – are now taking a tighter approach to acquisition to keep investors satisfied while maintaining a manageable workforce without the need for more layoffs down the line.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!