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Salesforce to Acquire Cloud Messaging Platform HeyWire

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salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) has struck a deal to acquire HeyWire, a cloud-based messaging platform for consumers. According to a blog posted by HeyWire’s CEO, the company will be incorporated into Salesforce's Service Cloud business on the completion of the transaction. However, the terms of the deal were kept under wraps.

About HeyWire

Founded in 2009, the company innovates and improves the way people communicate. HeyWire enables organizations to deliver messages through the 1-800 line, thereby meeting the company's and employees' BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) communication needs.

Benefits for Salesforce

The mobile messaging capabilities of HeyWire will empower Salesforce to build a strong marketing platform. The deal will give Salesforce a competitive advantage against traditional cloud computing companies such as Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) .

The acquisition will also add value to Salesforce's existing portfolio. Not only will it enhance the process efficiency of both the companies, but also make the CRM platform more efficient in handling sales, marketing and service functions.

This acquisition will make it easier for salesforce.com to tap the cloud-based business space. The company is looking forward to the global expansion opportunities that this acquisition is likely to provide.

Cloud technology is being increasingly adopted by businesses to innovate and drive growth. Gartner predicts that around $677.0 billion will be spent on cloud services between 2013 and 2016.

Further, according to Centaur Partners, SaaS and cloud-based business applications are likely to grow from $13.5 billion in 2013 to $32.8 billion in 2016, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.5%.

We believe that this acquisition will help Salesforce gain significant market traction in this space.

Bottom Line

Salesforce has been on an acquisition spree this year. In July, it completed the acquisition of Demandware, a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce solutions, for approximately $2.8 billion. Notably, the company has spent around $4 billion over the past 12 months on acquisitions.

The completion of the HeyWire transaction should enable the company to concentrate more on its core business, which should translate into new products and a more focused sales team.

Further, we expect Salesforce’s sustained focus on expanding its business through strategic acquisitions and investments to drive growth in the long run.

However, growth prospects have been rationalized to a considerable extent due to intensifying competition from International Business Machines (IBM - Free Report) .

Salesforce has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

 

 

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