Salesforce To Acquire Informatica For $8 Billion

Salesforce (CRM) is buying cloud data management firm Informatica (INFA) in an $8 billion U.S. deal that will bolster its push into artificial intelligence (A.I.).Under terms of the deal, holders of Informatica’s Class A and Class B-1 common stock will receive $25 U.S. in cash per share. Salesforce specializes in customer relationship management software and said that it plans to combine Informatica’s data catalog, integration, governance, privacy and data management services with its agentic AI solution, dubbed Agentforce.In a news release, Salesforce wrote: “Truly autonomous, trustworthy AI agents need the most comprehensive understanding of their data. The combination of Informatica’s advanced catalog and metadata capabilities with our Agentforce platform delivers exactly this.”Salesforce said it will fund the purchase through a combination of cash and debt. The purchase of Informatica is subject to regulatory approval. Shares of Salesforce are up about 1% in U.S. premarket trading on news of the Informatica purchase. Year-to-date, its share price has declined 17% to $273.13 U.S.The stock of Informatica is up 6% on news it is being acquired. So far this year, Informatica stock has fallen 11% to trade at $22.55 U.S. a share.