In December of last year rumours began to gain momentum that CRM powerhouse Salesforce was eyeing up an acquisition of collaboration platform Slack, with the former confirming that a deal was indeed in the works.

Seven months down the line and said acquisition has now been completed, with Salesforce paying $27.7 billion in order to bring Slack into the fold.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Slack as part of the Salesforce family, combining the #1 CRM and the trailblazing digital platform for the work anywhere world,” noted Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce regarding the acquisition in an official press statement.

“Together we’ll define the future of enterprise software, creating the digital HQ that enables every organization to deliver customer and employee success from anywhere,” he added.

What that future of enterprise might look like is unclear, but the pair are set to host an event on 17th August in order to unveil, ” a powerful platform for the digital-first, work anywhere world.”

If we had to hazard a guess, it looks like Slack will be positioning itself in a similar fashion to Microsoft Teams and have its platform be more enterprise-focused moving forward.

Adding credence to our predictions are the words of Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO and co-founder. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink and reshape how and where we work. Salesforce and Slack are uniquely positioned to lead this historic shift to a digital-first world. I could not be more excited for what’s to come,” he teases while referencing the forthcoming event.

What is of more immediate interest is how this will impact Slack as we currently know it. The platform has a dedicated community of users, so it remains to be seen whether any influence from Salesforce would  ever prompt users to leave.

Either way, it looks like another remote working-focused player is set to make its mark on the industry.

[Image – Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash]