Salesforce agrees to buy Braze for about $5.66bn.
Salesforce has agreed to buy Braze, the customer engagement platform, for about $5.66bn in enterprise value. Braze shareholders get $47.50 a share in cash, and the business will be folded into Salesforce's marketing products.
Salesforce announced the deal on 20 October. Braze, based in New York, says it has about 2,770 customers; Adweek names Canva, Dairy Queen, Equinox, Instacart, Urban Outfitters and Venmo among them. The company is led by co-founders Bill Magnuson, its CEO, and Jon Hyman. Salesforce expects the deal to close in its fiscal year 2028, subject to approval by Braze shareholders and regulators. Salesforce says the deal does not change its FY27 guidance.
Patrick Stokes, Salesforce's president of applications and marketing, said Braze was built to turn live customer behaviour into personalised engagement at scale. Braze is best known for app push notifications, in-app messages, email and SMS triggered by what users do.
The deal continues a run of Salesforce acquisitions, which Adweek lists as Qualified for $1.2bn in April, Contentful for about $1.5bn, Intercom's Fin for $3.6bn and Informatica for about $8bn last year. What happens to Braze's product roadmap, pricing and leadership after closing has not been set out.
For app-first brands in the Gulf that run lifecycle marketing on Braze, from delivery to fintech and retail, there is time, since closing is more than a year away, but should expect Salesforce bundling pitches and ask for price and roadmap commitments when contracts come up for renewal.
Why it matters
Two of the biggest customer messaging platforms are merging, which will change pricing and product choices for app-led brands that run lifecycle marketing.
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