Microsoft reportedly considering a bid to acquire Salesforce.com

Fahad Al-Riyami

Microsoft reportedly considering a bid to acquire Salesforce

New reports are in that Microsoft is currently evaluating a bid to acquire Salesforce. The software giant has long considered Salesforce a direct competitor to its Office 365 suite of cloud productivity solutions, it wasn’t until the Satya Nadella era that the two companies joined forces for the better.

Bloomberg is now reporting that sources close to the matter say that Microsoft is considering making the Microsoft-Salesforce partnership a permanent affair via an acquisition. This would have the software giant pay around $50 billion. Salesforce is said to have hired two investment banks to oversee the possible acquisition, in addition to evaluating bids from other companies as well.

However, Bloomberg says that no talks are currently happening, Microsoft and Salesforce haven’t met to talk about an acquisition, but Microsoft has been “long expected” to be a potential bidder should Salesforce go on sale. As a result of these reports, Salesforce stock has skyrocketed.

Both companies declined to comment, which doesn’t necessarily mean something is actually happening, but it would interesting if Microsoft goes through with the bid. Salesforce is, after all, one of the leading customer relationship management (CRM) software providers, and would certainly boost Microsoft’s position in that market.