Latest news with #SunilRajgopal
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce Strikes $8 Billion Acquisition To Boost AI And Data Cloud Power
Informatica Inc. (NYSE:INFA) stock surged on Monday amid reports that Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is weighing the acquisition of the software company after a prior deal failed to fructify in 2024. On Tuesday, Salesforce officially agreed to acquire Informatica for approximately $8 billion in equity value, net of Salesforce's current investment in Informatica. Under the terms of the agreement, holders of Informatica's Class A and Class B-1 common stock will receive $25 in cash per close, Salesforce plans to rapidly integrate Informatica's technology stack including data integration, quality, governance, and unified metadata for Agentforce, and a single data pipeline with MDM on Data Cloud. Salesforce will also support Informatica's continued strategy of building best-in-class, AI-powered data management products. Salesforce plans to invest in Informatica's ecosystem of data and infrastructure partners and apply Salesforce's marketing and distribution teams to accelerate the growth of Informatica's cloud business. Cloud Software Group, formerly Citrix Systems Inc had also eyed the deal, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Informatica held $1.9 billion in total debt, as per Bloomberg data. Informatica stock, down over 24% in the last 12 months, has long been a potential takeover target. However, Bloomberg analyst Sunil Rajgopal highlighted an overlap between Informatica and Salesforce's MuleSoft unit could attract regulatory scrutiny. In April 2024, Salesforce ended its acquisition discussions with Informatica after disagreeing on terms. Informatica, founded in 1993, provides customers with cloud-based, subscription data management services and automation solutions, including Unilever and Deloitte. In early 2023, Salesforce faced criticism for its acquisition strategy from activist investors such as ValueAct Capital and Elliott Management, leading to cost reductions, increased share repurchases, and the dissolution of its mergers and acquisitions board committee. Salesforce has acquired numerous companies over the years, including Tableau Software for $15.7 billion in 2019 and Slack Technologies for nearly $28 billion in 2020, marking its most significant acquisitions. Salesforce held $14.03 billion in cash and equivalents as of January 31, 2025. BofA Securities analyst Brad Sills rerated the stock backed by Salesforce Sales Cloud as the company's flagship offering, generating an estimated subscription revenue of $7.9 billion in fiscal 2026. It is growing at an estimated 9% growth rate (constant currency), keeping pace with Sills' estimate for total company subscription revenue. Price Actions: INFA shares traded higher by 5.63% at $23.82 premarket on the last check Tuesday. CRM shares traded higher by 0.57%. Read Next:Image via Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? SALESFORCE (CRM): Free Stock Analysis Report INFORMATICA (INFA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Salesforce Strikes $8 Billion Acquisition To Boost AI And Data Cloud Power originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Business Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Salesforce is back in talks to acquire Informatica
[NEW YORK] Salesforce is in talks to acquire software company Informatica, rebooting a pursuit that fell through last year, sources familiar with the matter said. If a deal is reached, it could be announced as soon as next week, according to the sources, who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private. No final decision has been made and talks may still falter or another buyer could emerge, they said. Cloud Software Group, formerly known as Citrix Systems, has been interested in the asset too, the sources said. Shares in Informatica rose as much as 28 per cent on Friday (May 23) for their biggest intraday gain. The stock closed up 17.5 per cent in New York, giving the company a market value of about US$6.8 billion. Salesforce finished the session 3.6 per cent lower for a market capitalisation of around US$262 billion. Redwood City, California-based Informatica also has about US$1.9 billion in total debt, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Representatives for Salesforce and Cloud Software Group declined to comment. Spokespeople for Informatica and private equity firm Permira, which backs Informatica, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Informatica, which helps customers manage their data in the cloud, has long been a potential takeover target. San Francisco-based Salesforce held talks to buy the company just over a year ago, Bloomberg News reported at the time. The talks cooled with the parties struggling to agree to terms. A deal would represent one of Salesforce's biggest-ever acquisitions. It could be strategic given the intensifying competition in the market for artificial intelligence-driven databases, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sunil Rajgopal wrote in a note on Friday. But overlap between Informatica and Salesforce's MuleSoft unit could attract regulatory scrutiny, Rajgopal wrote. Informatica was taken private in 2015 by Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in a US$5.3 billion transaction. They took the company public again in 2021. Permira, with almost 32 per cent of Informatica's shares, remains the company's largest stockholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. CPPIB owns about 25 per cent of the shares. BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg
24-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
DataRobot CEO on Building Domain-Specific AI: Tech Disruptors
As enterprises across industries look to leverage AI in their workflows, demand is growing for specialized models designed for specific tasks and verticals—creating new opportunities for companies like DataRobot that manage the entire AI lifecycle. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Debanjan Saha, CEO at DataRobot, joins Sunil Rajgopal, Bloomberg Intelligence's senior software analyst, to discuss the evolving AI solutions landscape, the importance of predictive analytics, and the value of being both cloud-agnostic and on-premises-friendly. They also cover DataRobot's revenue model, the future of enterprise apps, and competitive dynamics in the AI space.
Bloomberg
05-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Elastic CEO On Powering And Monitoring The AI Value Chain: Tech Disruptors
"Unstructured data needs certain kinds of specialized techniques for ingestion, for indexing, and so on and so forth. And that's what we specialize in" Elastic CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni tells Bloomberg Intelligence. Enterprise draw to harness unstructured data -- to drive business intelligence --could continue to grow. As enterprises deploy more AI infused applications and drive more of workflows thru AI, that's likely to drive up demand for platforms like Elastic, that enable to index, search and update large swath of data, monitor health of digital applications and infrastructure and analyze data for threat detection and resolution. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, he joins Sunil Rajgopal, BI's senior software analyst, to discuss the evolving enterprise search, observability and security landscape amid AI's rising capabilities, use cases and deployment. They also talk about Elastic's product ambitions, competition landscape and M&A aspirations.
Bloomberg
10-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Menlo Ventures On Developer Technologies, M&A, AI: Tech Disruptors
The technology tools that enable to build, operate and manage enterprise applications and infrastructure have continued to evolve and the advancements in AI could reset the current technologies, businesses and M&A landscape. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Tim Tully -- Partner at Menlo Ventures -- venture capital firm that invests early-stage across consumer, enterprise, and healthcare technologies, joins Sunil Rajgopal, BI's senior software analyst, to discuss the broad technology shift with particular focus on databases, observability, large language models and front-end development tools. They also talk about shift to developer role, productivity gains from AI, tech industry policies and technology M&A prospects.
