Salesforce to Acquire Braze in $5.66 Billion AI Push

Salesforce has agreed to pay $5.66 billion for Braze Inc., a deal that deepens the cloud software giant's bet on artificial intelligence tools for marketing and customer messaging, according to a Reuters report.

The agreement adds a customer engagement platform to Salesforce's lineup of products built around its core customer relationship management, or CRM, software. Terms of the deal beyond the purchase price were not detailed in Reuters' report, including whether the transaction is structured as cash, stock or a mix of both.

What is Salesforce buying?

Braze Inc. makes software that helps companies send personalized messages to customers through email, text, push notifications and in-app alerts. Marketing teams at retailers, media outlets and other businesses use the platform to manage those messages across channels, increasingly with the help of built-in artificial intelligence tools. Braze trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker BRZE.

Salesforce, based in San Francisco, built its business on CRM software that helps sales, service and marketing departments track customer accounts and interactions. The company has spent recent years layering AI features across its product line and acquiring smaller software firms with AI capabilities, Reuters reported.

Why is Salesforce making this move now?

Reuters described the Braze purchase as part of Salesforce's broader effort to deepen its position in artificial intelligence. Software companies across the industry have been adding AI features — automated writing tools, chatbots and systems that predict what a customer wants next — into products that businesses already use to run daily operations.

Buying Braze gives Salesforce an existing customer base and an engineering team already focused on AI-driven messaging, rather than building that capability from scratch internally. The move follows a pattern seen elsewhere in technology, where companies have chosen to acquire or bundle AI tools into products customers already pay for rather than develop every feature in-house. For more on how another large technology company has approached that trend, see HTT's report on Meta's new AI-focused subscription plans.

What has to happen before the deal closes?

Deals of this size typically move through several steps before becoming final. Braze shareholders generally must vote to approve the sale of the company, and transactions of this scale in the software industry often draw review from antitrust regulators before they can close. Reuters' report did not specify a closing date or say whether either step had been completed.

Based on Reuters' reporting and standard merger procedure, the rough sequence looks like this:

• Deal announced: Salesforce and Braze disclose the $5.66 billion agreement.
• Regulatory and shareholder review: the standard next step for a transaction of this size; no specific date was given in available reporting.
• Closing: expected once review and approval steps are complete; Reuters did not report a target date for completion.

What should Braze customers and employees expect?

Reuters' report did not address what changes customers or employees of either company should expect once the deal closes. In large software acquisitions, buyers sometimes say publicly that they intend to keep acquired products running and honor existing customer contracts, but neither company made such a statement in the material reviewed for this report. Businesses that rely on Braze's messaging tools, along with Braze's own staff, are likely to get more detail as the deal moves through regulatory and shareholder review.

What to watch next

• Whether Braze shareholders approve the sale, and when that vote is scheduled.
• Whether U.S. antitrust regulators open a review of the deal, given Salesforce's size in the CRM market.
• How Salesforce plans to fold Braze's messaging and AI tools into its existing product lineup once the deal closes.
• Any formal statement from either company about job continuity or product support for current Braze customers.

The full Reuters report is available via Google News.

How does this deal compare with Salesforce's other acquisitions?

Salesforce has a long history of buying software companies to add features rather than building them internally, Reuters noted. The Braze purchase fits that pattern and follows the company's broader push to add AI capability across its product lineup through acquisition. Reuters' report did not list specific prior deals for comparison or say how the Braze price compares with Salesforce's past purchases.

The $5.66 billion price tag makes Braze one of the larger acquisitions in the customer engagement software space, though Reuters did not provide additional figures, such as Braze's annual revenue or user base, that would allow for a fuller comparison. Investors and industry analysts will likely look for those details once Salesforce and Braze file formal transaction documents with regulators.

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