Salesforce agreed on Oct. 20 to buy Braze for about $5.66 billion in enterprise value1. Braze's Class A holders get $47.50 in cash a share. Braze closed Monday at $30.04, so the offer stands 58 percent above the last price9. Salesforce expects the deal to close in its fiscal 2028, after a Braze shareholder vote and regulatory approvals.
Braze is a customer engagement platform. Its software watches what a customer does in an app or on a site and sends the next message in real time1. AI Lately read the two SEC exhibits, Braze's own filings and the morning's market reaction to see what Salesforce is buying.
Salesforce's $47.50 offer stands 58 percent above Braze's $30.04 close on Oct. 19
Braze share price, Monday's close against the cash offer announced Oct. 20, 2026
Each column is one price per Braze share; the magenta column is Salesforce's cash offer and the gray column is the last close before the news.
Sources: Salesforce, via SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 [1]; Yahoo Finance [9]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Close, Oct. 19 | $30.04 |
| Salesforce offer | $47.50 |
The Terms
Salesforce will pay in cash, and the deal leaves its fiscal 2027 guidance unchanged1. The investor deck lists the trade: "Growth accretion balanced by near term profitability dilution"2. It also says "Expect to fund transaction via cash" and "No change to FY30 framework at this time."
J.P. Morgan advised Salesforce and Qatalyst Partners advised Braze1. Robin Washington, Salesforce's president and chief operating and financial officer, presented the webinar beside Patrick Stokes and Bill Magnuson2.
Patrick Stokes, Salesforce's president of applications and marketing, made the case in the release. "Every interaction is an opportunity to wow your customers," he said1. "Most of that wow comes from knowing your customer, and responding at just the right moment. Braze was built to turn live customer behavior into personalized engagement at scale."
What Braze Sells
Braze's revenue for the quarter ended July 31 was $227.2 million4. That is up 26.2 percent from $180.1 million a year earlier, and subscription revenue was $207.7 million.
Braze counted 2,789 customers on July 31, up from 2,422 a year earlier4. Of those, 361 paid $500,000 a year or more, and dollar-based net retention ran at 110 percent.
Braze's customer count rose to 2,789 on July 31, 2026, from 2,422 a year earlier
Total Braze customers at each July 31, per the company's fiscal second-quarter release
Each column is Braze's customer count on one date; the magenta column is the latest count.
Source: Braze, via SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| July 31, 2025 | 2,422 |
| July 31, 2026 | 2,789 |
Salesforce's own growth runs slower. Its revenue for the same quarter was $11.3 billion, up 11 percent, with $456 million of that from Informatica, its last large purchase10. Braze would add a business a fiftieth of Salesforce's size that grows at more than twice its rate.
Braze grew revenue 26.2 percent in the July quarter, Salesforce 11 percent
Year-over-year revenue growth for the quarter ended July 31, 2026, per each company's release
Each bar is one company's revenue growth rate for the same quarter; the magenta bar is Braze, the company being bought.
Sources: Braze, via SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 [4]; Salesforce [10]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Braze | 26.2% |
| Salesforce | 11.0% |
Braze's customer list in the release names Canva, Dairy Queen, Equinox, Instacart, Urban Outfitters and Venmo1. Magnuson and Jon Hyman co-founded the company and still run it.
The Rival in the Filing
Braze's annual report for the year ended January 31, 2025, describes its competition in plain words. "We face competition from software companies that offer marketing solutions, such as legacy marketing clouds like Adobe and Salesforce, and point solutions like Airship, Iterable, Klaviyo, CleverTap and MoEngage," Braze wrote3. Salesforce is now paying $5.66 billion for the company that called it legacy.
Customers moved too. Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC, is moving its email marketing from Salesforce Marketing Cloud to Braze after using Salesforce since 20178. Zachariah Kelly of iTnews reported the move on Nov. 6, 2025, from the broadcaster's 2024-2025 annual report. A spokesperson told the outlet the teams were "planning the transition carefully to ensure continuity of service," with completion expected in the second quarter of 2026.
Shay Boloor, an investor who posts market commentary on X, read the deal the same way on Tuesday morning11. Salesforce is "bringing in a real-time customer engagement platform that had been taking customers from Salesforce's own Marketing Cloud," he wrote.
The Market's First Answer
Salesforce shares fell 2.6 percent in premarket trading after the announcement, Reuters reported5. Harshita Tyagi of Stocktwits put the drop at more than 3 percent and Braze's premarket gain at more than 50 percent6. "Salesforce stock remains down more than 3% this year, weighed down by concerns over high AI-related capital expenditures and slowing sales growth projections," she wrote.
Erik van Klinken of Techzine made the strongest case against the price. "Agentforce Marketing (the new name for Salesforce Marketing Cloud) offers functionality similar to Braze's," he wrote7. Braze leans harder on mobile, he added. Its reach into a brand's data comes through integrations: "This involves data that tools like Braze can only access through integrations or API usage, resulting in added complexity."
Magnuson answered the overlap question in the release. "Salesforce shares our commitment to marketers, and we'll continue building as Braze and investing in the Braze community of customers and partners who built this company with us," he said1. Van Klinken reported that Braze will keep its own brand7.
Stokes' case holds if Braze's real-time engine gives Agentforce something Marketing Cloud lacked, at a price Salesforce's cash covers. Van Klinken's case holds if the two products do the same job. Then Salesforce has paid 58 percent over market for customers it once had. The reader weighs which.
What to do
Marketers on Braze have 15 months or more before anything changes1. The deal closes in a fiscal year that starts Feb. 1, 2027, so read Braze's renewal dates against that window. Marketing Cloud customers should ask Salesforce which product carries the roadmap after the close, since the release promises an "open, composable approach" and names both products.
Braze shareholders get $47.50 in cash a share once the vote passes1.
By the numbers
- $5.66 billion: Braze's enterprise value in the deal1.
- $47.50: cash a share, against a $30.04 close on Oct. 19, a 58 percent premium19.
- $227.2 million: Braze's revenue for the quarter ended July 31, up 26.2 percent from $180.1 million4.
- 2,789: Braze's customers on July 31, up from 2,422 a year earlier, with 361 paying $500,000 or more4.
- $11.3 billion: Salesforce's revenue in the same quarter, up 11 percent10.
- 2.6 percent: Salesforce's premarket fall after the news, per Reuters5.
- 2017: the year the ABC started on Salesforce before moving its email to Braze8.
What to watch
The Braze shareholder vote and the regulatory review set the clock, and Salesforce says fiscal 20281. Braze's third-quarter results, due around early December, will show whether the 26 percent growth held through the announcement4. Watch whether Salesforce makes Braze's engine the core of Agentforce Marketing or runs the two side by side. The release promises both an open approach and a stronger Marketing Cloud.
Sources
- Salesforce, "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Braze," SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001108524/000119312526425881/d516983dex991.htm
- Salesforce, "Salesforce to Acquire Braze: Investor Webinar," SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001108524/000119312526425881/d516983dex992.htm
- Braze, Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2025, March 31, 2025, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1676238/000167623825000054/brze-20250131.htm
- Braze, "Braze Reports Strong Fiscal Second Quarter 2027 Results," SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, Sept. 8, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1676238/000167623826000039/a20260731-brazeincxq227ear.htm
- Anzar Mehraj, "Salesforce to acquire Braze in a $5.66 billion deal," Reuters, via Global Banking & Finance Review, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/salesforce-acquire-braze-5-66-billion-deal/
- Harshita Tyagi, "CRM Stock Falls: Salesforce Strikes $5.66B Braze Deal To Strengthen AI Marketing Push," Stocktwits, Oct. 20, 2026, https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/equity/crm-stock-falls-salesforce-strikes-5-66-b-braze-deal-to-strengthen-ai-marketing-push/cZxqwbbRBut
- Erik van Klinken, "Salesforce acquires Braze for 5.66 billion," Techzine, Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/145125/salesforce-acquires-braze-for-5-66-billion/
- Zachariah Kelly, "Australia's ABC drops Salesforce for Braze," iTnews, Nov. 6, 2025, https://www.itnews.com.au/news/abc-drops-salesforce-for-braze-621537
- Yahoo Finance, "Braze, Inc. (BRZE) stock historical prices," accessed Oct. 20, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BRZE/history/
- Salesforce, "Salesforce Delivers Record Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Results," Aug. 26, 2026, https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/08/26/fy27-q2-earnings/
- Shay Boloor, "$CRM just agreed to acquire $BRZE for ~$5.7B in cash," X, Oct. 20, 2026, https://x.com/StockSavvyShay/status/2112516260219228351