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Salesforce agrees to buy Braze, a customer engagement platform, for about $5.66 billion to expand its AI capabilities in marketing
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Salesforce is paying $47.50 in cash for every Braze share, in a deal worth roughly $5.66 billion. Braze coordinates personalized messages over channels such as WhatsApp, SMS or email, and its BrazeAI features choose the content, offer and moment. The purchase, aimed at strengthening Salesforce's AI in marketing, needs the green light from Braze shareholders and from regulators.
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement on Tuesday, October 20, to buy Braze, a customer engagement platform listed on Nasdaq, for roughly $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Holders of Braze's Class A common shares will get $47.50 in cash for each one. With the purchase, Salesforce wants to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities in marketing.
Braze lets marketing teams react instantly to what their customers do and coordinate personalized messages over email, SMS, WhatsApp, websites, mobile apps and other channels. According to Salesforce, its architecture handles trillions of messages and actions a year, and BrazeAI, its set of AI features, adjusts the content, offers, channel and timing of each interaction. It has about 2,770 customers, among them Venmo, Canva, Instacart, Equinox, Dairy Queen and Urban Outfitters, and is run by its co-founders Bill Magnuson and Jon Hyman.
Salesforce says AI is demanding more of marketing teams, which now need "agentic solutions that can understand customers, make decisions, and act in real time", and that it wants to lead that change "through both organic innovation and acquisitions". After closing, it expects Braze to complement the four layers of its platform (Data 360, Customer 360, Agentforce and SIForce) and to strengthen cross-channel personalization in Marketing Cloud.
Bill Magnuson, Braze's CEO, said the company will keep "building as Braze" and investing in its community of customers and partners.
Salesforce expects to complete the purchase in its fiscal year 2028, if Braze shareholders and regulators approve it and the other usual conditions are met. It is not changing its guidance for fiscal 2027 and has not yet issued guidance for 2028. J.P. Morgan is Salesforce's financial advisor, and Qatalyst Partners is Braze's.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The purchase confirms where marketing software is heading: scheduling campaigns is no longer enough, and the system is expected to read what each customer does and respond on its own, without waiting for someone to prepare the next send. Salesforce already had the customer data and the Agentforce agents; it was missing the piece that sends messages instantly and at scale on mobile and in messaging apps, and it has chosen to buy it rather than build it. For those already working with Braze, the promise that it will keep running as Braze comes with no deadlines or written conditions, and closing will still take time: it is worth watching prices and contracts when renewal comes. For everyone else, it is another sign that automatic personalization will stop being an extra and will come as standard in the big platforms.
Official source: Salesforce · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
