Dive Brief:

• On Tuesday, Salesforce announced it will acquire MuleSoft, which will power the Salesforce Integration Cloud by opening access to data, wherever it is located, to drive business insight. The $6.5 billion deal will be Salesforce's largest to date.
• MuleSoft is a software services company that integrates enterprise applications, devices and data across business platforms. It already counts companies such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, Barclays and Mount Sinai among its 1,200-strong clientele. The application of its Anypoint Platform to Salesforce's much larger customer base will expand its enterprise reach significantly.
• The deal was made with a 36% premium above the MuleSoft's share price, which rose 27% following Tuesday morning rumors of the deal and another 4.4% after the deal was formally announced, reports The Wall Street Journal. MuleSoft CEO Greg Schott will maintain his position following the merger, which is set to take place at the end of Q2.

Dive Insight:

MuleSoft will bring significant API management capabilities, an important investment for the CRM company integrating artificial intelligence capabilities throughout its portfolio.

Salesforce's AI/ML platform Einstein already drives a billion insights daily for customers. As it makes Einstein Analytics more accessible with conversational features for data retrieval, MuleSoft will help ensure the advanced tools have access to more complete information by integrating customers' application networks. 

The convergence of so many data points, advanced analytics capabilities and the cloud has led to rapid growth in the API space, and CIOs are increasingly looking to get APIs out to market quickly, connecting systems and processes, without having to start everything from scratch, according to Simon Peel, CSO at Jitterbit, in an interview with CIO Dive. 

But larger companies like Salesforce, with heavy AI operations and massive customer bases, are not the only ones that can or should benefit from APIs. These tools are a simple and quick way to unlock all the information in the enterprise, and companies need to "stop waiting" and "get on with it," said Peel.