2 min Applications

Salesforce buys own department Salesforce.org

Salesforce buys own department Salesforce.org

Salesforce has made a somewhat unusual acquisition. The company has bought its own independent, philanthropic organisation Salesforce.org for 300 million dollars (265 million euros) in cash.

Salesforce.org was born because Salesforce wanted to integrate philanthropy into its business by donating a percent of its equity, products and employee time to communities around the world. Salesforce.org and Salesforce say they have offered technology for free or at a high discount to more than 40,000 non-profits and educational institutions worldwide, and awarded over $260 million in scholarships.

After the acquisition, Salesforce.org will no longer be a public utility company in California, but must become a business cooperative, writes Silicon Angle. The $300 million that the organization will receive from the acquisition will go to the Salesforce.com Foundation, an independent non-profit organization, which plans to distribute the money philanthropically.

New department

Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org, will start a new non-profit and educational department at Salesforce after the acquisition, which will focus on managing sales and marketing for the company’s Customer Success Platform. The new department will also develop new “vertically-oriented” cloud applications for non-profits, educational institutions and philanthropic organisations.

“By combining Salesforce and Salesforce.org in a new non-profit and educational vertical, the power of Salesforce’s philanthropic model is strengthened,” said Salesforce executives.

“Salesforce is going to expand this model by continuing to offer software for free or at a high discount to non-profits and educational institutions around the world, and by investing in local communities by matching employee volunteering, strategic donations and the money that employees donate to charities, up to $5,000 per employee per year.

Higher turnover

The acquisition is so significant that Salesforce has adjusted its sales expectations this year. The company states that turnover should increase by about 150 million dollars to 200 million dollars. The exact increase in revenue depends on when the acquisition is completed.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.