Salesforce to Acquire Demandware, Add Commerce Services

Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Demandware, a provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, according to a recent announcement. The transaction will reportedly be worth about $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Salesforce will buy all outstanding shares of Demandware for $75.00 per share, in cash. The buy is expected to close in the second quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2017, which ends July 31.

“Demandware is an amazing company—the global cloud leader in the multi-billion dollar digital commerce market,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “With Demandware, Salesforce will be well positioned to deliver the future of commerce as part of our Customer Success Platform and create yet another billion dollar cloud.”

This deal will extend Salesforce’s CRM leadership and position it grab a sizable piece of the multi-billion dollar digital commerce market, under the new Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SCC) division. SCC will be part of Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform.

“Demandware and Salesforce share the same passionate focus on customer success,” said Tom Ebling, CEO, Demandware. “Becoming part of Salesforce will accelerate our vision to empower the world's leading brands with the most innovative digital commerce solutions that enable them to connect 1:1 with customers across any channel.”

The acquisition is expected to increase Salesforce’s FY17 total revenue by about $100 million to $120 million. This will mean that revenue for the company’s full fiscal year 2017 is projected to be in the range of $8.26 billion to $8.32 billion, an increase of 24 to 25 percent year-over-year.

BofA Merrill Lynch is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Salesforce. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Demandware.

The full release with all financial disclosures is here.