Thursday, July 15, 2010

Who Will Salesforce.com Buy with its $1.8 Billion? Is Salesforce.com a Target too?

Salesforce.com, the San Francisco-based software services company, may use tuck-in buys versus larger deals for growth and could also be a target, according to a Citigroup research report.

The analyst report stated that the company has a$ 1.8 Billion cash and 412 Billion market cap and noted that there are several types of deals it could do, for example, tuck-in deals of CRM companies such as Xactly, Apttus, or Eloqua; or deals outside Salesforce.com's existing "ecosystem" such as Lithium and Jive or R&D related deals.

The research report stated that it can't be ruled out that Salesforce.com may be a target for larger IT businesses, but that analysts think only California tech giants Oracle or Google would be possible acquirers.

In my opinion, following the integration of the Sun deal, Oracle will continue making buys at full speed in the CRM, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Content Management but only if the price is right. Given the co-CEOs recent press annoucements, SAP may be another bidder in the same domains.

A Citigroup analyst said Google to be prioritizing M&A options linked to advertising. In addition, the report named Washington-based Microsoft, New York-based IBM, and Germany-based SAP AG as possible bidders.

1 comment:

Don Carli said...

Geospatial Analytics & Mapping applications are strategic.