News about Salesforce

Salesforce agreed to buy customer engagement platform Braze for about $5.66 billion, with Braze Class A holders receiving $47.50 in cash per share and closing expected in fiscal 2028, according to a Salesforce blog. Salesforce shares slipped about 1% Tuesday morning, while BRZE soared more than 50% after a brief premarket halt, from a $30.04 close on Monday. Braze makes AI marketing tools for managing customer data and messaging, and CEO Bill Magnuson said Salesforce's platform will help the company innovate faster.

Salesforce and Adobe both expect AI to speed up subscription software growth, but they charge differently: Salesforce premium editions cost 60% to 80% more than lower tiers, while Adobe has held off on price rises to win users. Salesforce reports revenue under contract for the next twelve months up 14%, and its AI agent product Agentforce has reached $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue; Adobe counts more than 1 billion monthly users, up over 20%, and its AI-first products have passed $650 million in annual recurring revenue. Adobe trades at 13.6 times trailing earnings versus 20.9 times for Salesforce, with a 35.7% operating margin against 21.5%, and grows slightly faster (12.0% versus 11.2%). Salesforce is executing a $25 billion share buyback and plans to hire 1,200 account executives, while its total debt equals 20.6% of market value, compared with 6.8% for Adobe.