Salesforce Inc. is in talks to buy data management provider Informatica Inc., multiple publications reported today.

Reports that an acquisition could happen first emerged last April. At the time, Reuters reported that Salesforce had offered about $10 billion for Informatica. The negotiations ended shortly thereafter after the companies failed to agree on the acquisition terms.

It’s unclear how much Salesforce may offer for Informatica this time. Since the first acquisition attempt, the latter company’s market capitalization has dropped by more than 40%. That suggests a bid by Salesforce could be lower than the original offer.

Redwood City, California-based Informatica debuted on the Nasdaq at the turn of the millennium and went private in 2015 for $5.3 billion. The two funds that bought the company returned it to public markets in 2021. Its shares jumped more than 17% in today’s trading session on the reported acquisition talks.

The company sells a data management platform that is used by more than 5,000 organizations worldwide. Many of the platform’s features focus on easing the task of moving records between systems. An e-commerce company, for example, can use the software to sync website usage data between its analytics tools. A bank could back up financial records from on-premises servers to the cloud.

Informatica ships its platform with an AI assistant called CLAIRE. When a company wishes to move data between two systems, the assistant suggests ways that the data could be changed to ease processing. CLAIRE can likewise point out sensitive information that should be removed from a record before it’s loaded into a new environment.

The platform also lends itself to other tasks. One built-in tool helps companies scan their datasets for erroneous entries, duplicate items and other quality issues. Another module can make an organization’s datasets available through a centralized catalog for easy access. 

Informatica has a long-running partnership with Salesforce. Joint customers use the former company’s platform for tasks such as syncing data between Salesforce and third-party applications. According to Informatica, its software can also move information from one Salesforce environment to another.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the acquisition could be announced as early as next week. That hints that Salesforce may be planning to notify investors about the deal after its earnings report on Wednesday. However, the Journal’s sources cautioned that the acquisition discussions could still fall apart.

Salesforce is reportedly not the only company that has expressed interest in buying Informatica. Reuters reported that Cloud Software Group Inc. is also a potential buyer. The latter company was formed in 2022 when two private equity firms merged Citrix with TIBCO Software. 

Photo: Salesforce