IBM is said to have held talks with Informatica before Salesforce bought the company in May for $8 billion. This is the conclusion reached by Bloomberg based on multiple sources.
IBM did not respond to questions from news sites, nor did Informatica. Although approval is still pending, it appears that Salesforce will become Informatica’s owner for $8 billion. We discussed the potential reasoning behind the move last week.
Informatica specializes in data management. This brings us to a simple explanation for the acquisition, even though there is more to it: data is necessary for AI, and Salesforce is making the acquisition to strengthen its own AI offering by making data more easily accessible. Nevertheless, there’s a deeper reason behind it all. We see opportunities for Salesforce to use Informatica’s technology to bridge the gap between Agentforce and outdated applications, enabling migrations from these legacy systems. Salesforce itself prefers not to talk about migrations, but they do indeed happen.
Competition for Informatica
In addition to IBM and later Salesforce, other parties also showed interest in Informatica. Cloud Software Group reportedly considered making an offer. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff acknowledged the strong competition. “We were lucky to have the winning bid,” he said in a recent interview. Despite its age, Informatica in the year 2025 was a hot asset.
The company, which has been active in data management since 1993, was highly sought after for its AI-driven platform. Salesforce itself sees the acquisition as a way to create the “most complete, agent-ready data platform.”
IBM’s acquisition policy
Like Salesforce, IBM is not afraid of high-profile acquisitions to enter new markets. Major acquisitions include Red Hat for $34 billion in 2019, HashiCorp for $6.4 billion in February 2025, and Apptio for $4.6 billion in 2023.
Nevertheless, Informatica is a bridge too far, even though it would have been a good fit for IBM’s portfolio. The emphasis it places on delivering a simple AI platform would have made the move to better data management a logical one. Earlier this year, we attended IBM’s Put AI To Work event, where the company explained how it brings agents and automation together.