Salesforce $CRM stock got a bump Monday morning following a report by The Wall Street Journal that it is no longer pursuing a deal to buy Informatica, a cloud data management firm that serves the likes of Deloitte and Unilever.
Informatica — which reportedly could have been valued around $10 billion — would have been Salesforce’s largest acquisition since it purchased Slack $WORK in 2021. Shares of both Salesforce and Informatica sank about 7% on news of the potential deal last week. Salesforce stock recovered some of those losses Monday morning, rising 2%. But Informatica stock sunk almost 10%.
Salesforce has acquired more than 70 companies since 2006, the biggest of which so far has been its purchase of Slack in 2021 for $28 billion. As a cloud-based software company, Salesforce helps sales staff manage customer relationships, while Informatica allows companies to manage their data across cloud and on-premises systems for better analysis. Salesforce didn’t immediately respond to Quartz’s request for comment.
Like basically every other tech company these days, Salesforce has been focusing on AI, launching a chatbot designed specifically for businesses last fall called Einstein Copilot. While its focus on enterprise customers gives it an edge, Google $GOOGL is also angling for business customers, touting its partnerships with Goldman Sachs $GS, Mercedes, and other large companies at its annual conference in Las Vegas this month.