Why the timing was right for Salesforce's $8 billion acquisition of Informatica - and for the opportunities ahead | Fortune

"I was asked about this in the wake of Salesforce's recently completed $8 billion acquisition of Informatica. In part, I believe that people are paying attention because deal-making is up in 2025. M&A volume reached $2.2 trillion in the first half of the year, a 27% increase compared to a year ago, according to JP Morgan. Notably, 72% of that volume involved deals greater than $1 billion."

"There will be thousands of mergers and acquisitions in the United States this year across industries and involving companies of all sizes. It's not unusual for startups to position themselves to be snapped up. But Informatica, founded in 1993, didn't fit that mold. We have been building, delivering, supporting and partnering for many years. Much of the value we bring to Salesforce and its customers is our long-earned experience and expertise in enterprise data management."

"First and foremost is a need to ensure that the strategies of the two companies involved are in alignment. That seems obvious, but it's easier said than done. Are their tech stacks based on open protocols and standards? Are they cloud-native by design? And, now more than ever, are they both AI-powered and AI-enabling? All of these came together in the case of Salesforce and Informatica, including our shared belief in agentic AI as the next major breakthrough in business technology."

Vision, talent, culture, product innovation and customer focus are core to market-leading businesses. Deal-making surged in 2025, with $2.2 trillion in M&A volume in H1 and many large transactions. The $8 billion Salesforce–Informatica acquisition paired Salesforce with a long-established enterprise data management provider founded in 1993. Both startups and legacy vendors must move quickly and differentiate. Effective M&A demands aligned strategies, open-protocol tech stacks, cloud-native design, and AI-powered, AI-enabling capabilities. Shared belief in agentic AI and complementary technical approaches can unlock combined value and drive major technological breakthroughs.

Read at Fortune