Salesforce Acquires ClickSoftware For $1.3bn

CRM and cloud services provider Salesforce has announced that it will acquire ClickSoftware, a developer of in field service management solutions.

Salesforce will acquire US/Israel-based ClickSoftware for approximately $1.35bn, made up of a mixture of cash and Salesforce common stock.

Salesforce was in the headlines in May when its customers experienced disruption to its cloud-based services, after the deployment of a database script inadvertently granted users broad permissions over companies’ data.

Service management

But these disruptions have done little to dampen the acquisitive nature of Salesforce. Indeed, the acquisition of ClickSoftware comes a week after the firm closed its $15bn purchase of data analytics firm Tableau.

The acquisition of ClickSoftware is designed to bolster Salesforce’s growth of its cloud-based products to manage customer service operations.

“The addition of ClickSoftware will enhance Salesforce Service Cloud’s leadership as the #1 service platform, empowering every service employee from the contact center to the field to deliver more connected, intelligent customer service,” said Salesforce.

It seems that Salesforce intends to bundle the capabilities of ClickSoftware into its Salesforce Field Service Lightning, built on Service Cloud.

“With the combined capabilities of Field Service Lightning and ClickSoftware, Salesforce will be positioned to lead the way to the future of field service,” said the US firm.

Mobile workforces

“Delivering exceptional field service is an increasingly important priority for companies across industries with more than 70 percent of customer service leaders making significant investments to transform their mobile workforce,” said Bill Patterson, EVP and GM of Salesforce Service Cloud.

“Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers,” said Patterson. “We are thrilled to welcome the ClickSoftware team to Salesforce.”

Joining Salesforce provides a tremendous opportunity to accelerate this vision,” said Mark Cattini, CEO of ClickSoftware. “As a part of Salesforce, we will be able to innovate faster, enabling our joint customers to deliver even better experiences to their customers.”

There is no word on possible job layoffs, but the acquisition is expected to close during Salesforce’s fiscal quarter ending 31 October, subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

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