Salesforce’s Informatica acquisition plan falls through, says report

Enterprise software company Salesforce’s plans of acquiring data management company Informatica have fallen through as the firms couldn’t mutually agree on terms, a Reuters report quoting sources said. To be sure, Wall Street Journal had first reported on April 12 that Salesforce was in ‘advanced talks’ to buy Informatica. Neither of the companies have publicly commented on any of the developments, as yet. 

Founded in 1993, Informatica is a data management services provider which operates on a subscription based mode. It has over 5,000 customers including Unilever and Deloitte. Informatica helps companies in managing their data across cloud and on-premise, along with analysing the collected data to give relevant insights. Informatica has also boarded the AI bandwagon, releasing its own tool called Claire. An acronym for “Cloud-centric AI-backed Real-time Engine”, the purpose of Claire is to help users better understand and manage their organisation's data landscape.

Informatica is often compared with Salesforce owned Mulesoft. An IT automation platform, Mulesoft was acquired by Salesforce in 2018. Some of its services include data and system integration, workflow automation, and providing digital experiences. The reported Informatica acquisition was expected to augment and support Mulesoft’s services, offering comprehensive data cataloguing, and advanced data management tools.

The Informatica deal was anticipated to be the largest for Salesforce since its $28 billion acquisition of Slack in 2021. In an interview with MarketWatch on April 17, Informatica co-founder Gaurav Dhillon said that the acquisition was a bad idea. He added that Salesforce’s integration of Informatica’s technology would be complex and time consuming project that can take more than five years.

Major acquisitions by Salesforce include Slack Tableau and Mulesoft, along with more 65 others made since 2006. These high profile and pricey acquisitions received much criticism from activist investors. In March 2023, it disbanded the board’s merger and acquisition committee in an effort to increase profitability and in response to activist pressure.