There’s big money in ecommerce, as evidenced by Salesforce’s agreement to acquire Demandware for $2.8 billion. Large retailers and brands use Demandware to power their ecommerce initiatives; clients include Lands’ End, L’Oreal and Marks & Spencer.
Salesforce is a cloud computing company known for its customer relationship management (CRM) product – see Wikipediafor more background.
It’s big bucks, but not the first multi-billion-dollar ecommerce acquisition; in 2011, eBay acquired GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion.
The nitty-gritty of the deal as explained by Demandware:
“Salesforce’s acquisition of Demandware, a recognized leader in the space, will extend the company’s CRM leadership and position it to capture this multi-billion dollar digital commerce market with what will be the new Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
“The Salesforce Commerce Cloud will be an integral part of Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform, creating opportunities for companies to connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Salesforce customers will have access to the industry’s leading enterprise cloud commerce platform, and Demandware’s customers will be able to leverage Salesforce’s leading sales, service, marketing, communities, analytics, IoT and platform solutions to deliver a more comprehensive, personalized consumer experience.”
The Wall Street Journal put it a little more simply, “Salesforce.com is known for web-based access to software that helps salespeople keep track of their customers, and it has expanded into marketing, customer service and vertical industries. The company’s customers would be able to use Demandware’s platform, to be renamed Salesforce Commerce Cloud, to complete sales transactions.”
Internet Retailer quoted industry experts who believe Demandware will be able to expand from pure B2C (business to consumer) to B2B (business to business).
The transaction is expected to close by the end of July 31, subject to customary closing conditions, including the acceptance of a majority of Demandware shares in the tender offer and expiration of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.
You can find the announcement on the Demandware website.
