Salesforce agrees to acquire Braze for $5.66 billion in all-cash AI marketing push (Oct 20)
What happened
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) announced a definitive agreement to acquire customer-engagement platform Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE) for about $5.66 billion in enterprise value, paying $47.50 per share in cash — a ~58% premium to Braze's $30.04 close on Monday. Braze's platform processes trillions of messages a year across mobile, web, email, SMS and WhatsApp, and its BrazeAI tools automate content, offers, channel and timing decisions for ~2,770 customers including Canva, Instacart, Urban Outfitters and Venmo. Salesforce plans to fold Braze into Marketing Cloud alongside Data 360 and Agentforce; the deal is expected to close in Salesforce's fiscal 2028 with no change to its fiscal 2027 outlook. J.P. Morgan advised Salesforce; Qatalyst advised Braze. Salesforce would pay a $300M termination fee; Braze $191.4M.
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Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- CRM (Salesforce) — acquirer; fell ~3% premarket, closed essentially flat at $242.44, a measured reaction suggesting the price premium, not the strategy, is the main debate. BRZE (Braze) — surged 51.7% to $45.57 on volume ~18x average, trading within 4% of the $47.50 offer, so most further upside requires a competing bid. KVYO (Klaviyo) — rose ~12% on read-through: as the largest remaining independent customer-engagement platform it could attract its own bid. Broader software/AI SaaS names (HUBS, MDB peers) get a valuation read-through on takeout premiums in the sector.