Salesforce Strikes $5.66 Billion Deal to Buy Customer Engagement Platform Braze

10:51 AM EDT, 10/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Salesforce (CRM) agreed to acquire customer engagement platform Braze (BRZE) in a deal worth $5.66 billion, as it looks to strengthen its business-to-consumer marketing solutions. Shareholders of Braze's class A stock will receive $47.50 in cash per share, the companies said in a joint Tuesday statement. Shares of Salesforce fell 0.8% in Tuesday trade, while Braze surged 51%. Salesforce is down 9.3% this year, while Braze is up 32%. Salesforce expects Braze's real-time engagement and AI capabilities to complement its existing platforms, including Customer 360 and Agentforce. The customer relationship management platform expects the deal to advance its strategy for a more "complete" Customer 360 and strengthen the marketing cloud's cross-channel personalization. Customer 360 is a suite of unified applications that connects customer data across sales, service, marketing, commerce, IT and operations into a single platform. Agentforce is Salesforce's AI-powered agent platform. "Braze was built to turn live customer behavior into personalized engagement at scale," Salesforce's president of applications and marketing, Patrick Stokes, said in a statement. "Bringing that capability together with Salesforce marketing cloud, CRM, and Data 360 will deliver that wow moment in every customer interaction." Salesforce has established a credible AI strategy that reduces the risk of the company becoming obsolete amid a transition toward agentic AI, BofA Securities said Monday. The deal, which requires approval from Braze's shareholders and clearance from regulators, is expected to complete in Salesforce's fiscal 2028. Salesforce said it doesn't expect the transaction to impact its 2027 guidance. "Salesforce's platform will help us innovate faster and together we'll help marketers around the world build deeper, more lasting relationships with their customers," Braze Chief Executive Bill Magnuson. The company has about 2,770 customers, including Canva (CVNA), Instacart (CART), Urban Outfitters (URBN) and PayPal (PYPL) subsidiary Venmo. Last month, Braze said it expected adjusted earnings between $0.64 and $0.65 per share on a revenue range of $910 million to $913 million for fiscal 2027. In August, Salesforce lifted its full-year revenue outlook after delivering a fiscal second-quarter beat. In June, Salesforce agreed to acquire customer-agent company Fin for $3.6 billion. Last year, the company completed the purchase of Informatica for about $8 billion. In the broader industry, ServiceNow (NOW) completed its acquisition of Armis in April for roughly $7.75 billion. SAP (SAP) acquired Prior Labs in July. Late last year, Workday (WDAY) bought AI company Sana for about $1.1 billion. Price: 241.83, Change: -0.62, Percent Change: -0.26