Technology
Salesforce’s Benioff Escalates Microsoft Rivalry With Slack
- Communications app competes directly with Microsoft’s Teams
- Deal moves Salesforce toward Benioff’s $50 billion sales goal
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Salesforce.com Inc.’s $27.7 billion takeover of Slack Technologies Inc. represents co-founder Marc Benioff’s most aggressive effort yet to challenge reigning software maker Microsoft Corp.
The cash-and-stock deal, announced Tuesday and expected to close by July, will bring a workplace-communications application that’s grown more popular during the coronavirus pandemic to Salesforce’s ever-expanding platform. In the process, the app maker will come into greater conflict with the world’s largest software company, which offers a competing product named Teams.