Salesforce buys Braze for $5.66 billion to boost AI-driven marketing
Braze shareholders will get $47.50 per share in cash. That is below the $65 price of the company's 2021 IPO, and the deal still needs regulatory approval.
Imagem: Salesforce (material de imprensa)
Salesforce, which bills itself as the world's number one AI CRM, announced on Tuesday, October 20, a definitive agreement to acquire Braze, a US customer engagement platform, for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Under the deal, holders of Braze Class A shares will receive $47.50 per share in cash.
In an investor presentation filed with the SEC, Salesforce says it expects to fund the purchase with cash, without issuing new shares.
What Braze does
Braze powers many of the messages apps send their users: push notifications, emails, texts, WhatsApp and in-app messages, triggered by what each person does in real time. It has about 2,770 customers, including Canva, Instacart, Venmo and Dairy Queen, and uses AI to choose the content, channel and timing of each message.
Salesforce wants to plug that technology into Marketing Cloud, Data 360 and Agentforce, its AI agent platform. “Most of that wow comes from knowing your customer, and responding at just the right moment,” said Patrick Stokes, Salesforce's president of applications and marketing. Braze co-founder and CEO Bill Magnuson said the company will keep building as Braze.
What happens next
The deal needs approval from Braze shareholders and regulators, and is expected to close in Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, which begins in February 2027. Salesforce says the acquisition does not change its guidance for the current fiscal year.
One detail stands out: $47.50 per share is below the $65 Braze charged in its Nasdaq IPO in November 2021, when the company was valued at nearly $5.9 billion. It is the latest in a run of recent Salesforce acquisitions aimed at AI for sales and marketing.
