Salesforce has signed an agreement to acquire Krux, a San Francisco-based marketing data software start-up, for about $700m.
In its regulatory filing Salesforce noted that it will be paying $340m in cash to the software start-up as part of the acquisition, with the remaining amount to be paid through common stock.
The number of shares to be issued will be determined based on the volume-weighted average closing price of the stock.
Krux was established in 2010 and provides a data management platform which unifies segments and activates audiences to increase engagement with users, prospects and customers.
Some of its customers include ABInBev, BBC, ConAgra Foods, L’Oreal, Jet Blue Airways, Kellogg’s and Mondelez International.
Krux CEO Tom Chavez said: “With this agreement, we are bringing together Salesforce’s #1 CRM platform with Krux’s category-leading data management platform (DMP), the Intelligent Marketing Hub. As a part of the Salesforce ecosystem, we’ve had the opportunity to work closely with the Salesforce team to create integrations that make our customers even more successful.
“Beyond the strategic and technology fit, we believe our companies’ core values, which include innovation, trust, transparency, and most importantly customer success, are in perfect alignment and offer an exciting foundation upon which we can continue building the industry’s smartest Marketing Cloud.
According to Krux, it will extend Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s audience segmentation and targeting capabilities to power consumer marketing with much precision. Apart from this, Krux will also provide Salesforce Einstein with billions of new signals, which make companies smarter about their customers.
Following the acquisition, Krux would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Salesforce.
Krux is the latest company to be acquired by Salesforce. In the past 12 months Salesforce has spent nearly $4bn on somewhat of a spending spree, buying companies such as Demandware, Quip and BeyondCore. The company also tried to acquire LinkedIn for about $26bn but lost out to Microsoft.
