Dive Brief:
- Salesforce announced an acquisition deal for Datorama, a marketing intelligence and analytics platform powered by artificial intelligence, for an undisclosed amount on Monday. Salesforce is reportedly offering more than $800 million in cash for the Israel-based company, according to Calcalist.
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Datorama's platform will augment data integration and intelligence on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud and complement a Google Analytics 360 integration and Marketing Cloud Einstein tools, according to Salesforce.
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Datorama's more than 3,000-strong customer base, including PepsiCo, Ticketmaster, Unilever and Foursquare, will offer new market opportunities for the leading CRM provider.
Dive Insight:
King of the CRM market isn't enough for Salesforce, and as the company extends its roots deeper into the marketing space it is gearing up with the goal of dominance in new domains.
In digital marketing, Salesforce and Oracle are closely vying with Adobe for the top hubs on Gartner's 2017 Magic Quadrant, and Salesforce is trying to gain even more ground and catch up to Oracle and Adobe in the Multichannel Marketing Hub Magic Quadrant for 2018.
Adobe's Experience Cloud is leveraging a Microsoft partnership, including a Dynamics 365 integration, with a roadmap centering on Azure's AI and data capabilities, according to Gartner.
Salesforce's Marketing Cloud has improved data-sharing and bolstered data analytics with the Google 360 partnerships, Gartner said. With data integration and AI capabilities on the agenda for 2018, the Datorama acquisition will augment these key areas for Salesforce. In conjunction with with its other cloud platforms, the marketing capabilities are setting up a robust enterprise product spanning multiple domains.
Integration of data, networks and applications has been a big priority for Salesforce. The Datorama deal comes a few months after Salesforce's $6.5 billion acquisition of MuleSoft, an integration software company for enterprise application networks.