Salesforce to Buy Braze for $5.66 Billion in Cash at a 58% Premium; CRM Slips as BRZE Jumps 50%

Salesforce (CRM) signed a definitive agreement on October 20 to acquire Braze (BRZE), the New York-based customer-engagement platform, for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Braze Class A holders will receive $47.50 in cash per share, which Investing.com and Reuters put at a premium of about 58% to Braze's $30.04 close in the prior session. The merger agreement is dated October 19, and the deal requires a majority vote of Braze's Class A shareholders plus antitrust clearance.

The market split along familiar acquirer-versus-target lines. Braze shares were halted ahead of the news and then jumped more than 50% in early trading, changing hands near $45.48 by midday, still below the $47.50 offer. Salesforce shares fell 3% in the first reports after the announcement; by midday the decline had narrowed to about 1.4%, around $239. Peers did not follow: 24/7 Wall St noted ServiceNow and Adobe trading higher the same morning, which points to a reaction specific to the deal rather than a software-sector selloff.

Strategically, Salesforce is buying real-time, cross-channel messaging and AI decisioning to sit alongside Marketing Cloud and its Agentforce agent platform, a move Reuters framed as Salesforce deepening its AI bets. Braze serves about 2,770 customers, including Canva, Instacart and Venmo, according to the joint announcement. It extends an active run of dealmaking: Reuters notes the roughly $8 billion Informatica purchase last year and a $3.6 billion deal for AI agent platform Fin earlier this year.

The terms carry real protection for Braze holders. Salesforce would owe a $300 million regulatory termination fee if the deal fails on antitrust grounds, while Braze would pay about $191.4 million if it walks away, per the merger agreement. Salesforce said the transaction is expected to close in its fiscal year 2028 (February 2027 to January 2028) and that there is no anticipated change to its fiscal 2027 guidance. What to watch: the Braze shareholder vote, the length of the regulatory review, and whether Salesforce quantifies the revenue contribution, since neither company disclosed Braze's revenue or the deal's financing in the announcement.