Biggest deal since Slack: Salesforce buys data security company Own Data

The software company Salesforce has announced the purchase of Own Data for 1.9 billion US dollars. Own Data specializes in the protection and management of data. Salesforce already held ten percent of the company's shares before the purchase decision. The provider of customer relationship management (CRM) applications intends to use the Own Data purchase to drive the growth of its data security and data protection products.

Users of CRM software also increasingly want to protect themselves against data loss due to system failures, human error and cyber attacks. This is a market that Own has specialized in by developing solutions for optimal availability, security and compliant storage of business-critical data.

Company founded in Israel has important partnerships

In the past, Own has raised more than 500 million dollars in capital from BlackRock, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Global and has entered into partnerships with ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce. The company was founded in 2015 in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv.

For Salesforce, it is the largest acquisition sum since the purchase of the communication tool Slack in 2021, when Slack went to Salesforce for 27.7 billion dollars. Salesforce also held takeover talks with the software company Informatica, which offers similar applications to Own, in spring 2024. However, these fell through.

Takeover to be completed in 2025

The takeover of Own is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025. An increase in free cash flow is expected from the second year after completion of the acquisition. According to Salesforce, the forecast for the 2025 financial year will not change and the deal is not expected to have any impact on capital repayment.

Salesforce also announced this week that it had reached an agreement with the Californian AI start-up Tenyx on a takeover. Tenyx specializes in AI-based voice assistants.

(mma)