Salesforce is making a bold move to strengthen its AI capabilities by acquiring cloud data management firm Informatica in an $8 billion equity deal announced Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
The acquisition represents Salesforce's largest purchase since its $28 billion Slack deal in 2021 and comes at a critical time as the company aggressively expands its AI offerings. Under the terms of the agreement, Informatica shareholders will receive $25 in cash per share, representing a 30% premium over the company's closing price before news of the talks emerged.
"Salesforce and Informatica will create the most complete, agent-ready data platform in the industry," said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, highlighting how the combination will strengthen the company's position in the $150 billion-plus enterprise data market. The acquisition is expected to close in early fiscal year 2027 and will be funded through a combination of cash and new debt.
The deal aims to enhance Salesforce's trusted data foundation critical for deploying its agentic AI solutions. Informatica, founded in 1993, brings extensive expertise in data catalog, integration, governance, quality, privacy, and master data management services. These capabilities are essential for Salesforce's Agentforce platform, which has already secured more than 3,000 paying enterprise customers.
Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud platform, powered by its CLAIRE AI engine, will complement Salesforce's existing AI infrastructure. The combined technologies will enable AI agents to operate more safely, responsibly, and at scale across enterprises by providing better data context and governance—critical requirements for autonomous AI systems.
This acquisition continues Salesforce's pattern of strategic purchases to expand its product portfolio, following previous acquisitions including Tableau for $15.7 billion in 2019 and MuleSoft for $6.5 billion in 2018. The integration of Informatica's technology is expected to accelerate Salesforce's growth in key sectors including public sector, life sciences, healthcare, and financial services.