Salesforce.com Inc agreed to buy Slack Technologies Inc for US$27.7bil in cash and stock, giving the corporate software giant a popular workplace-communications platform in one of the biggest technology deals of the year. — Bloomberg
With a sale to Salesforce, Slack’s co-founder and chief executive officer Stewart Butterfield is back in a familiar position: running the startup he created while inside a corporate behemoth.
In 2005, Butterfield sold his photo-sharing site Flickr to Yahoo! Inc, but resigned a few years later, after chafing at the web company’s corporate culture and bureaucracy. He created another hit product – workplace chat software – and after a decade of building, took Slack Technologies Inc public last year. But instead of continuing on his own path, he and Salesforce.com Inc CEO Marc Benioff shook hands. “This is the most strategic combination in the history of software,” Butterfield wrote in the news release about the acquisition. “I can’t wait to get going.”
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
