Anirban Sen
(Reuters) – Salesforce is in talks to acquire business software maker Informatica, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The deal could be announced soon, said the source, who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential.
The deal is priced below Informatica’s current share price of $38.48, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the talks between Salesforce (NYSE:) and Informatica.
Salesforce did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the WSJ report. Permira declined to comment.
Informatica is based in Redwood (NYSE:), California and has companies such as Unilever (LON:) and Deloitte as clients. Its market capitalization is about $11.35 billion.
Founded in 1993, Informatica offers cloud-based, subscription-based data management and task automation services to more than 5,000 active customers.
In 2015, Informatica was sold privately for approximately $5.3 billion by a consortium that included private equity firm Permira Advisers Ltd and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Six years after it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange again. Permira and CPPIB currently hold a majority stake of over 75% in Informatica.
In early 2023, Salesforce became a target for activist investors seeking changes that would cut costs and increase share buybacks. As part of a series of steps taken after activist investors including ValueAct Capital and Elliott Management took stakes in Salesforce, the company dissolved the board’s mergers and acquisitions committee.
Some activists have also pushed the company to increase growth and profits, buy back more shares and raised concerns about its acquisitions.
Salesforce acquired workplace messaging app Slack Technologies (NYSE:) in 2020 for $27.7 billion, betting on increased remote work.
The San Francisco-based cloud computing pioneer has historically shown a strong interest in deals and investments. Slack became Salesforce’s biggest acquisition. In 2019, it bought data analytics platform Tableau Software in an all-stock deal valued at $15.7 billion.