Topic: How To Invest

Spinoffs & Takeovers Hotline – Friday, September 13, 2024

Article Excerpt

SALESFORCE INC., $254.57, symbol CRM on New York, provides cloud-based software for customer relationship management applications such as sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development. Founded in 1999 by current CEO Marc Benioff and three other co-founders, the company pioneered the SaaS (software as a service) software model and subscription-based revenue. Software-as-a-service is where subscribers pay a monthly or yearly fee for software implementation, support and upgrades. That replaces the traditional model of charging customers a one-time fee on the initial sale of software, then charging them for upgrades. SaaS increases client retention and produces recurring revenue streams. For the customer, it stretches out the cost. It’s like renting the software instead of owning it. Over the years, Salesforce has grown partly through acquisitions like Slack, the messaging and work collaboration app. It paid $28 billion for Slack in July 2021. On September 3, 2024, Salesforce agreed to acquire Tenyx, a developer of AI-powered voice agents that create natural and engaging…