Salesforce said Tuesday it will acquire customer engagement software company Braze for about $5.66 billion in cash, a deal aimed at folding Braze's AI-driven personalization tools into Salesforce's business software lineup. Braze shareholders will receive $47.50 per share, a premium of roughly 58.1% over the company's last closing stock price before the announcement.
The acquisition, reported by Reuters, came as trading in Braze shares was suspended ahead of the New York market open, while Salesforce's own stock dipped as the market digested the price tag. New York-based Braze serves about 2,770 customers, including Canva, Dairy Queen, Equinox, Instacart, Urban Outfitters and Venmo, according to the same report. The company's AI tools help marketers optimize content, offers, channels and timing, and let brands send personalized messages and respond to customer behavior in real time.
Under the deal terms, Salesforce subsidiary Banff Acquisition Sub Inc. will merge directly into Braze, Inc., in an all-cash structure funded through cash on hand, according to TradingView. Following the acquisition, Braze will keep its brand name and continue operating as a distinct brand, with CEO Bill Magnuson and the company's executive leadership team joining Salesforce, per MarketBeat.
A Growth Story Heading Into the Deal
Braze wasn't exactly struggling before Salesforce came calling. In its fiscal second-quarter 2027 earnings reported in September, the company posted $227.2 million in quarterly revenue, a 26.2% year-over-year jump, along with $22 million in free cash flow, according to Pulse 2.0's coverage of the earnings report. During that same update, Braze raised its full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to between $910 million and $913 million, the report notes.
The company's AI push was already paying off commercially. Prior to the acquisition agreement, Braze reported that paid adoption of its generative AI tools — including its AI decisioning studio and agent console — had reached approximately one-third of its large customer accounts spending $500,000 or more annually by the second quarter of fiscal 2027, per Perplexity's financial summary of the company.
Founded in 2011 under the name Appboy before rebranding to Braze in 2017, the company completed its initial public offering on the Nasdaq in November 2021, the same financial summary notes. It is a multichannel marketing automation platform.
Salesforce's Return to Mega-Deals
Salesforce's $5.66 billion Braze deal is smaller than its $8 billion Informatica acquisition in 2025 and its $27.7 billion Slack purchase in 2020 and $15.7 billion Tableau acquisition in 2019, according to Apex Hours. Salesforce has also recently signed deals for the AI agent platform Fin for $3.6 billion and for Informatica for $8 billion in 2025, per The News Tribune's reporting.
The proposed Braze deal is another large-scale acquisition for Salesforce.
If the agreement falls through, Salesforce would owe a $300 million termination fee, while Braze would pay $191.4 million if it walks away from the deal, according to The News Tribune. J.P. Morgan Securities is serving as Salesforce's exclusive financial adviser, while Qatalyst Partners is advising Braze, the outlet reports.
Fitting Into Salesforce's AI Agent Strategy
The timing lines up with Salesforce's broader transformation. Throughout 2025 and 2026, the company refocused its product lineup around autonomous AI agents under its Agentforce brand, with agents designed to enhance business processes and work alongside people, according to Vantage Point. Braze's real-time, event-driven data across mobile apps and messaging channels would feed directly into that agent-driven system.
Investors, for their part, remain wary that rapid AI adoption could erode demand for traditional software, per The News Tribune. That skepticism isn't new: the enterprise software market saw widespread stock price volatility earlier this year, with major CRM and cloud vendors including Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday seeing market drops driven by fears that generative AI could disrupt traditional subscription models, as Hoodline previously reported.
Salesforce has said it does not expect the Braze deal to change its fiscal 2027 forecast. The transaction is expected to close during Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, according to Quartz, pending required regulatory and shareholder approvals.
