Salesforce’s activist makeover faces trial by M&A

Informatica

16/04/2024 14:51

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Robert Cyran
       NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A swarm of
pushy investors last year pushed the software firm into cutting
costs, returning capital, and de-emphasizing dealmaking. Now
it’s mulling a takeover of $11 bln Informatica, the WSJ says.
The price will signal whether founder and CEO Marc Benioff has
changed his ways.
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    CONTEXT NEWS 
    Salesforce is in advanced talks to buy Informatica, the Wall
Street Journal reported on April 12, citing people familiar with
the matter.  
    Informatica is a software company that helps companies
extract, clean up and analyze data. Private equity firm Permira
and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board own 75% of the
company. A consortium that included the two institutions took
Informatica private in 2015 for about $5.3 billion. The company
went public again in 2021. 
    Activist investors including Starboard Value, ValueAct
Capital, Third Point, Elliott Investment Management and
Inclusive Capital Management took stakes in Salesforce in 2022
and early 2023 and raised concerns about the company’s
governance, profit margins, and history of making large
acquisitions. The company subsequently cut costs, bought back
shares, disbanded its M&A board committee and added multiple
directors to the company’s board including Mason Morfit, the
chief executive of ValueAct Capital. 

 (Editing by Peter Thal Larsen and Sharon Lam)
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