Report: Salesforce Looks to Acquire Informatica

Salesforce is reportedly in advanced negotiations to purchase data-management software provider Informatica.

The talks were the subject of a Friday (April 12) Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report said Informatica has a market capitalization of more than $11 billion after a 43% jump in its shares this year as traders invested in a deal. However, WSJ said, sources say the price being discussed was below Informatica’s Friday closing stock price.

Salesforce provides cloud-based software that helps companies manage customer relationships, while Informatica helps businesses such as Toyota and Unilever manage and analyze the data they collect.

The report said Informatica recently debuted new tools building on its artificial-intelligence (AI) capabilities, such as Claire GPT, a generative AI tool to help companies handle data. WSJ said the deal would be among Salesforce’s biggest, and the largest since it acquired Slack for $28 billion in 2021, its biggest deal ever. 

The prospect of AI enhancing Salesforce’s offering has helped drive up its stock price since 2022, the report added.

PYMNTS has contacted Informatica for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. A Salesforce spokesperson declined to comment.

As noted here last month, Salesforce was part of a group of tech companies that recently signed an open letter stressing a “collective responsibility” to “maximize AI’s benefits and mitigate the risks” to society, marking the tech sector’s latest effort to call for building AI responsibly.

The concept of responsible AI had gained attention after Elon Musk sued OpenAI, alleging that the ChatGPT creator had broken its original promise to operate as a nonprofit, and arguing that the potential dangers of AI should not be managed by profit-driven giants like Microsoft.

But as PYMNTS wrote, some observers contend there is a long road to travel before the goals of responsible AI are widely achieved. 

“Unfortunately, companies will not attain it by adopting many of the ‘responsible AI’ frameworks available today,” Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy at Domino Data Lab, said in an interview with PYMNTS. 

“Most of these provide idealistic language but little else. They are frequently disconnected from real-world AI projects, often flawed, and typically devoid of implementable advice.”

Meanwhile, this month brought reports that Google was considering a bid to acquire HubSpot, a move that would expand the company’s offerings in the customer relationship management (CRM) market and create new opportunities for its cloud computing business.