Informatica, the world’s leader in enterprise cloud data management, is reportedly in advanced negotiations to be acquired by Salesforce. The talks were the subject of a Wall Street Journal report, citing sources familiar with the matter. Salesforce, a provider of cloud-based software for managing customer relationships, is looking to purchase data-management software provider Informatica. The potential acquisition comes as Salesforce aims to enhance its offering with artificial intelligence (AI). Informatica has a market capitalization of over $11 billion, and the price being discussed for the acquisition is below Informatica's Friday closing stock price. If the deal goes through, it would be one of Salesforce's biggest acquisitions and the largest since its $28 billion acquisition of Slack in 2021. Both companies have been contacted for comment but have not yet replied. [395bc154] [e4085664]
Meanwhile, GitLab, a US cloud software company backed by Google, is reportedly considering a sale after attracting interest from potential buyers. The company has started working with investment bankers on a sale process, with cloud monitoring company Datadog named as a likely buyer. However, an agreement is still weeks away and could fall through. GitLab has a current market value of around $8 billion, while Datadog has a market value of $44 billion. GitLab operates an open-source platform for designing and managing software and has more than 30 million registered users, including Deutsche Telekom, Nvidia, and Fujitsu. The technology sector has seen an increase in M&A activity, with AI and cloud companies attracting interest. In the first half of 2024, the technology sector accounted for the largest share of M&A, with a total value of $327.2 billion globally. GitLab's main rival is Microsoft, which acquired GitHub in 2018 for $7.5 billion. [a85a2c32]