Salesforce Acquires Data Protection Provider Own Company for $1.9 Billion, Reports Reuters

Salesforce announced on Thursday its plan to acquire Own Company, a provider of data protection and management solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. This move aims to enhance the growth of its data security and privacy offerings.

The acquisition occurs at a time when organizations are increasingly prioritizing the mitigation of data loss due to system failures, human errors, and cyberattacks.

Salesforce projects that this acquisition will lead to accretion on a free cash flow basis starting in the second year after the deal is finalized, which is expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.

The company indicated that there would be no expected changes to its fiscal year 2025 forecast, and the acquisition will not affect its capital return program.

Own has successfully raised over $500 million from various investors, including BlackRock, Salesforce Ventures, and Tiger Global. The company has also established partnerships with prominent firms such as ServiceNow and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

In a separate announcement earlier in the week, Salesforce revealed it would acquire Tenyx, a company that develops AI-driven voice agents, although the financial details of that deal have not been disclosed.

Last year, amid pressure from activist investors, Salesforce committed to doubling its share buybacks and moving away from pursuing additional acquisitions after dissolving its mergers and acquisitions committee.

Now, the California-based organization is looking at acquisitions as a strategy to rejuvenate its revenue growth.