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NEW YORK: Salesforce<\/a>.com is trying to catch Microsoft<\/a>. Marc Benioff's $220 billion company may add Slack Technologies<\/a> to its coffers, according to Reuters, after big recent deals buying Tableau Software and MuleSoft. The trouble is the company's much bigger rival has the advantage of resources and ties to more customers, putting Salesforce on the back foot in the work-from-home battle.
Salesforce got its start with easy to use cloud-based software for salespeople. Adding bits such as Tableau, which allows data to be visualized, has made Salesforce's software more helpful. The result is rising revenue and about a 50% jump in Salesforce's stock price over the past 12 months. It's easy to see where Slack fits - Breakingviews predicted a deal . The workplace is increasingly based on decentralized groups, a trend sped up by Covid-19 lockdowns. Salesforce's attempts at messaging haven't really caught on, while users tend to be happy with Slack.
The trouble is that Slack, while about half the enterprise value-to-estimated sales multiple of rival Zoom Video Communications<\/a>, isn't growing as fast and, still at 20 times, isn't all that cheap. Plus Microsoft can essentially give its version away by bundling it with other enterprise software. Salesforce could do that too, but that might make an already expensive-looking acquisition even more so.
The $1.6 trillion Microsoft also has greater resources to buy or build. Teams, for example, was an internal project. With such a large market capitalization, it can also afford to make mistakes on buying smaller companies. Conversely Slack's market capitalization is about 10% of Salesforce.
Microsoft has also posted much higher returns on invested capital - well into the double digits for the past several years, versus lower single digits that Salesforce throws up, according to Refinitiv. Getting Slack to bolster those returns won't be easy. Its operating loss this year should be around $70 million. It will take several years of continued growth, or additional benefit to Salesforce's other products, before Benioff's firm earns a decent return.
Benioff has received the benefit of the doubt from investors after pioneering cloud software. But his knack for seeing where technology is going may meet its match in the much larger, and well-managed Microsoft.
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