salesforce

Salesforce, a CRM company, and Demandware, a provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, announced June 1 that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Salesforce will acquire Demandware in a transaction worth approximately $2.8 billion (net of cash acquired).

Under the terms of the agreement, Salesforce will commence a tender offer for all outstanding shares of Demandware for $75.00 per share, in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2017, ending July 31, 2016, according to Salesforce.

Salesforce’s acquisition of Demandware will extend the company’s CRM leadership and position it to capture this multi-billion dollar digital commerce market with what will be the new Salesforce Commerce Cloud, said Salesforce.

The Salesforce Commerce Cloud will be an integral part of Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform, creating opportunities for companies to connect with their customers in entirely new ways.

 Salesforce customers will have access to an enterprise cloud commerce platform, and Demandware’s customers will be able to leverage Salesforce’s leading sales, service, marketing, communities, analytics, IoT and platform solutions to deliver a more comprehensive, personalized consumer experience.

According to Gartner, worldwide spending on digital commerce platforms is expected to grow at over 14 percent annually, reaching $8.544 billion by 2020 (Gartner, Inc. Forecast: Enterprise Software Markets, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 1Q16 Update, March 17, 2016).