The ACCC will not oppose the proposed acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc. (Slack) by salesforce.com, inc. (Salesforce).
Salesforce is a global supplier of customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Slack is an enterprise collaboration platform, which enables users to engage in direct messaging, group channel messaging, document sharing and limited intra-organisation voice-and-video-calling.
"Salesforce and Slack mostly supply different software with distinct purposes, so there is minimal direct competitive overlap between them," ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
"We focused on whether Salesforce having both CRM and team collaboration solutions could give rise to a substantial lessening of competition."
The ACCC concluded that it is unlikely that the acquisition would result in Salesforce preventing Slack's rivals in team collaboration solutions from competing effectively. Similarly, the ACCC did not consider it likely that Salesforce's rivals in CRM solutions would be competitively disadvantaged.
"Most interested parties raised no concerns. Market participants said that if Salesforce engaged in anti-competitive bundling or foreclosure conduct, customers could switch to alternative CRM solutions, including global enterprise software companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Adobe. Similarly, customers could switch to alternative team collaboration solutions, such as Microsoft Teams," Mr Sims said.
"We consider, due to commercial and reputational risks, that Salesforce would be unlikely to disadvantage competitors by degrading interoperability between Salesforce's CRM solution and competitors' team collaboration solutions, or between Slack's team collaboration solution and competitors' CRM solutions."
Further information is available at salesforce.com, inc. - proposed acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc.
Background
A CRM solution is a technology for managing a business' connections, interactions and communications internally and externally. Salesforce's core CRM software solution, 'Customer 360', enables businesses to connect with their customers by combining sales, service, marketing, commerce, information technology and analytics. Salesforce also operates an AppExchange with over 6,000 third-party applications to enable businesses to integrate Customer 360 with other software and applications.
Team collaboration software solutions provide a platform for individuals and teams to message each other and share content. Slack's team collaboration software solution is also designed to integrate with a range of external software systems to share and aggregate information.
