Salesforce spends 14 billion euros Slack purchase, but what it is really buying is a new way to fight Microsoft, according to experts: Salesforce has begun talks to buy the messaging app and collaborative work Slack, as the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. If it goes ahead, it will be the largest acquisition in Salesforce's history, putting itself at the forefront of a series of purchases that includes companies like MuleSoft integration software or the Tableau data visualization tool.

The talks are advanced and the deal could be announced in the coming days, it could even coincide with Salesforce's quarterly results report, scheduled for Tuesday next week, according to the WSJ, although it is not guaranteed that the operation will close.

If a deal is reached, Salesforce could pay slightly more than the 14.000 million euros (17.000 million dollars) in which Slack was valued at the market close on Tuesday. That price would exceed the cost of the acquisition of Tableau, for which it paid about 12.5 billion euros in 2019.

After the news came out on Wednesday, Slack shares rose by 37% during the day, from the 29,55 dollars (24,75 euros) of the opening to the more than 40 (33,5 euros) with which they closed the day. Meanwhile, Salesforce fell more than 5%, from título 263 per title (220 euros) at the start of the market to 2 246 (206 euros) at the close.

A deal could make sense for both companies and would put more competitive pressure on Microsoft, according to several analysts. This is important, because both Salesforce and Slack are rivals of the Redmond giant in their markets.

For example, the growth of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Relationship Management and resource planning software, which was 38% in the past year, threatens Salesforce's dominance in the CRM industry. At the same time, Slack has shown signs of suffering in the face of Microsoft Teams ' growth, as its growth rate has remained stable while teams or Zoom shot up revenue.

By teaming up with Slack, Salesforce could be better positioned to compete with Teams and the Office 365 environment it is part of, while Slack could gain the resources to improve its bottom line, according to analysts polled.

Salesforce spends 14 billion euros Slack purchase

"This deal could be a major shot to the bow of Microsoft, which with Teams is offering a direct competitor in the messaging area to Slack and was becoming a clear obstacle to its growth, so the market would compete in a two-way race between Microsoft and Salesforce," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note to his clients.

As Microsoft has become a stronger competitor to Salesforce, one of its strengths is that its tools-from its Dynamics 365 sales and customer support software, the Power Platform application development tool, and applications like Word and Excel— are all integrated. Microsoft is increasingly positioning Teams as a complete environment for working, in which all these applications are connected.

Teams is included with the business versions of the Microsoft Office 365 Office suite. Its use has grown tremendously this year, surpassing the 115 million daily active users in October, well above the 75 million they announced in April or the 44 million in mid-March.

Salesforce, for its part, has made some moves to move closer to the collaborative work and productivity sector, including the business social network Chatter and acquiring the word processor Quip. However, Microsoft (and, to a lesser extent, Google) continues to dominate the business. "It's a great opportunity that Salesforce has not been able to block," says Dan Newman, analyst at Futurum Research.

Including Slack in your catalog would allow Salesforce to combine your productivity apps in the same way Microsoft does with Teams. It would do so at a good time to hit in this market, as demand for these types of tools is at a peak, due to the telework boom brought about by the pandemic.

With remote work, " instant messaging applications have become more important if they are part of a larger platform," says Business Insider Rishi Jaluria, analyst at D. A. Davinson.

"Slack would give Salesforce a big step forward to be on all desktops," adds valoir analyst Rebeca Wettemann. "Although he gained collaboration options with Quip, with the growth and adoption of Slack, he would go further in his collaboration strategy, which would drive his ambition to enter companies beyond their traditional users of CRM systems," he adds.

In addition, this move would be in line with Salesforce's strategy of growing with acquisitions and inorganic growth. The platform has to "find new ways to grow, and this is a potential," Newman points out.

For Slack, several analysts see the acquisition as a positive sign for its growth and prospects. While other collaboration tools like Zoom or DocuSign have skyrocketed during the pandemic, Slack's growth has remained in line with its pre-COVID-19 data. This has put pressure on its shares and generated skepticism among analysts.

"Microsoft Teams has managed to better capitalize on the opportunity," Jaluria says. From his point of view, the difference is that Microsoft has been able to integrate Teams into Office 365, taking advantage of Slack's lack of focus on areas such as video conferencing or the ability to share files within its chat functionalities.

The timing of Teams has allowed it to overcome some of the key advantages of Slack: its better integration with third-party tools, or the support of developers who program extensions to the platform. With the growth of the Microsoft tool, a vibrant development ecosystem has developed around it, diminishing one of the advantages Slack had, its adoption by developers.

Slack has brought this rivalry to the European Commission, before which it filed an antitrust lawsuit against Teams this summer, in which it alleges that the inclusion of Teams within Office 365 is anti-competitive. Microsoft responded by saying that Slack was suffering during the pandemic for not having the option of video conferencing.

Analysts expect a tie-up between Slack and Salesforce to take a lot of pressure off Slack. Being a smaller company, you could access Salesforce's huge customer base, including large companies, giving you the kind of growth that could grow your business.

"Slack would be instantly boosted in senior executive discussions across industries," RBC analyst Alex Zukin said in a note to investors.

Salesforce spends 14 billion euros Slack purchase

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The best mobile for less than 150 euros: triple camera from 48 megapixels and battery from 6.000 mAh

Xiaomi does not reduce the pace of presentation of new smartphones nor with the arrival of December. The Chinese company presented a few days ago a new device, although this time it belongs to its little sub-brand.

The new phone, the Poco M3, is a mid-range terminal, with a striking design, vibrant colors and at a spectacular price.

Its technical characteristics are not bad at all, taking into account its segment. In fact, some powerfully attract attention. The most outstanding is the battery. It carries no less than a 6.000 mAh, which is accompanied by 18W fast charging.

The display is also quite generous, with 6,53 inches Full HD+. In the rear it has triple camera, with a main sensor of 48 megapixels and another two of 2 megapixels for macro and depth. As for the selfie camera, it is 8 megapixels.

If you have caught the attention of the Poco M3 for its features and affordability, you can already buy it in pre-reservation for only 149 euros on Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime or you get the service in the first month, you can get it sent to you without shipping costs.

At this price is the version of 128 GB, a very large capacity to save photos in high resolution and videos in 4K. you can also find with 64 GB for something less, although not much. As for RAM, it takes 4 GB.

The processor would be the loosest feature of Xiaomi's phone, although it is enough to pull with most apps and games if they do not involve a lot of graphics load. It is a Snapdragon 662 from Qualcomm.

The device can be yours in power black and Cool Blue tones. The model in yellow, perhaps the one that has attracted the most attention after its presentation, for now can not be obtained on the ecommerce platform.