In one of the biggest CX news stories of the year so far, back in April, it was reported that Salesforce was on the cusp of acquiring cloud data management provider Informatica.
Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal confirmed the story at the time, with the former publication actually predicting that it could be completed within days.
Salesforce may well have been looking to leverage Informatica’s data integration and management platform, which could have been utilized to enhance the CRM provider's Data Cloud and Einstein 1 solutions.
However, by the following week, it had been reported that the deal was off due to the two tech firms' inability to agree on terms, with an unnamed Bloomberg source attributing the impasse to a disagreement over price.
While neither company has discussed why the proposed deal fell through, it may have been in response to the reaction of the market, with both companies experiencing share price drops after the news broke.
While Salesforce has recovered somewhat since its initial 7% decrease, the potential takeover marked the start of a gradual decline for Informatica, with its price having fallen by almost nine dollars and currently at its lowest point since mid-February.
Away from the stock market, the deal also garnered criticism from those within the CX sector, with Gaurav Dhillon – Co-Founder of Informatica and current CEO of SnapLogic – one of the more vocal naysayers.
Dhillon described the proposed acquisition as a "real step backward" for Salesforce, as well as expressing concerns about the merger's impact on Informatica's users – predicting a "rocky road ahead" due to significant overlaps in integration products.
The Co-Founder's primary worry was how Informatica's technology would coexist with MuleSoft, the integration platform Salesforce acquired for $6.5 billion in 2018 – claiming the issue could take years to resolve:
With two disparate platforms, Salesforce now has to navigate merging MuleSoft’s technology with Informatica’s technology – a complex, time-consuming project that will likely take more than five years to complete.
The topic was recently re-examined by some of the most prominent CX analysts in the sector during a CX Today Big CX News discussion.
So, what did the experts have to say about the ‘almost acquisition’ of the year?
The Deal that Never Was
Despite playing their parts in a week-long will-they-won't-they that could have rivalled Ross and Rachel in their prime, the potential acquisition looks set to remain a ‘what if’.
