Salesforce has today (27 May) singed a definitive agreement to acquire cloud data management outfit Informatica for approximately $8bn (£5.9bn) in equity – net of its current investment in the firm – in a move the software behemoth reckons will enhance the “trusted data foundation” upon which its agentic artificial intelligence (AI) strategy rests.
Salesforce said the combination of Informatica’s data catalogue, integration, governance, quality and privacy, metadata management and master data management (MDM) services with its own platform would establish a unified agentic AI architecture, with the goal of enabling AI agents to run at-scale, responsibly, and safely.
“Together, Salesforce and Informatica will create the most complete, agent-ready data platform in the industry,” said Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce. “By uniting the power of Data Cloud, MuleSoft, and Tableau with Informatica’s industry-leading, advanced data management capabilities, we will enable autonomous agents to deliver smarter, safer, and more scalable outcomes for every company, and significantly strengthen our position in the $150bn plus enterprise data market.”
Amit Walia, CEO of Informatica – which recently waded into the agentic AI fray itself – added: “Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses with the transformative power of their most critical asset – their data. We have a shared vision for how we can help organisations harness the full value of their data in the AI era.”
Deeper dive
Looking deeper into the tech underlying the deal, Salesforce said that ultimately, bringing together Informatica’s cloud-native data management capabilities would unlock new capabilities for its own enterprise data stack and deliver a “complete solution” to the challenges of scaling AI.
Salesforce leadership laid out a five point plan for how this will be accomplished:
- Through strengthening Data Cloud’s leadership in the customer data platform (CDP) space, delivering actionable, clear, trusted and unified data across customer organisations;
- Through elevating Agentforce – launched last year – by building a foundation on which autonomous AI agents can go about their business, interpreting and acting on complex datasets;
- Through augmenting Salesforce’s Customer 360 CRM to give users confidence that they can deliver better for customers, backed by trusted data;
- Through governed understanding for MuleSoft – ensuring data flowing through its APIs is connected, enriched, standardised and trustworthy;
- And through context-rich insights for Tableau users.
Salesforce said that forging a connection at this level would demand deep, native integration of Informatica’s technology within its own platform.
“Our acquisition strategy is methodical, patient, and decisive – targeting transformative assets like Informatica when the calculus aligns to maximise customer success,” said Robin Washington, president and chief operating and financial officer at, Salesforce.
“This proposed acquisition will be a key enabler for Salesforce’s next phase of AI-driven growth – and we will move quickly to integrate their capabilities and unlock synergies on a fast timeline, particularly in areas like public sector, life sciences, healthcare, and financial services. We’re laser-focused on accelerated execution to increase our market differentiation and deliver sustained benefits for all Salesforce stakeholders.”
Subject to regulatory approval and other conditions, Salesforce expects the deal to close early in the first quarter of its fiscal 2027 – approximately 12 months from now.
Hard road ahead
SnapLogic CEO Gaurav Dhillon, who co-founded Informatica back in the early 1990s, said he had mixed feelings about the deal.
“On the one hand, I understand why it might be happening and it makes sense in theory. It is a crystal clear ‘I-told-you-so’ moment for me and why I founded SnapLogic, because most enterprises are going to need one platform, for application and data integration. But on the other hand, it will likely create massive turmoil for Informatica (and Mulesoft) customers,” he said.
“That turmoil is inevitable when two legacy integration platforms like Mulesoft and Informatica have to be squeezed down to one; to truly get a grip on important business data about customers, suppliers and markets. A slow, painful process that will take years if all goes according to plan. This challenge is compounded because you can’t go backwards in time to pre-cloud and pre-GenAI technology.”
