Salesforce makes it rain

A storm is brewing in Silicon Valley, where the winds of the so-called SaaSpocalypse threaten to blow away the software industry as we know it. Rather than batten down the hatches, Salesforce is picking up provisions to ride it out.

The software giant announced today that it will acquire Braze for $5.66 billion in cash; Salesforce’s fifth-largest acquisition. Braze, an AI-powered marketing platform that helps businesses build and personalize messages to consumers, serves enterprise customers like Canva, Equinox, Venmo, and Dairy Queen.

For Salesforce, the acquisition aims to strengthen its existing marketing business and expand Braze’s services to Salesforce’s much larger customer base.

Adapt or get swept away

It’s an aggressive but perhaps necessary move amid the SaaSpocalypse—the volatile market that enterprise software companies have endured this year because of artificial intelligence. Investors are debating whether AI agents and tools could make traditional subscription products obsolete, and SaaS developers have weathered the resulting tumult.

The storm intensified last week after CoreWeave’s debt triggered a broader tech selloff, dragging down software companies alongside chipmakers and cloud providers. On Friday, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF plunged 4.8%.

Salesforce is trying to outrun the disruption by becoming the provider of agents itself. Braze is its 15th acquisition since May 2025, tossed into Salesforce’s cart alongside an $8 billion deal for AI data manager Informatica and a $3.6 billion purchase of AI customer service org Fin. Together, the acquisitions enable Salesforce to build a platform where agents carry out business tasks, and customers are charged for their AI usage in addition to subscriptions.

The price of survival

But while Braze shares surged more than 51% on the announcement, Salesforce slipped, then recovered, as investors questioned the 58% premium on its latest purchase.

While it’s true that Braze is a fast-growing business, with revenue up 26% last quarter, the company remains unprofitable under standard accounting rules. That makes a valuation of more than six times its projected annual sales another headwind to investors.

The premium “seems a bit odd unless it was competitive,” Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Materne wrote in a note. While he acknowledged that the logic was right, “The timing and price are likely to be a bit of a debate.” Analysts at BTIG, meanwhile, see strategic value in the acquisition, arguing in a note that Salesforce could benefit from consolidating the fragmented field of marketing software.

There’s no telling what Silicon Valley will look like after a SaaSpocalypse tears through. But one thing’s for sure: When a storm approaches, you may not want to stand still.—SY