Salesforce's Horizontal Acquisition Strategy Should Be Changed To A Vertical-Focused Strategy

Informatica (INFA) ought to be acquired by Accenture (ACN), IBM (IBM) or any one of a number of Services firms that play in the data integration space - not by Salesforce (CRM). Oracle (ORCL) was the rumored Informatica acquirer for years as was SAP (SAP).

Salesforce has evolved from its origins as a tightly focused Salesforce Automation / Customer Relationship Management company to a messy ERP firm. I understand CRM’s rationale for acquisitions - its core market is only so large. However, why not make vertical-specific acquisitions that will deliver value to Salesforce customers within specific industry verticals? A vertical acquisition strategy would be more focused, would create more scale within each of CRM’s industry verticals and would accrue more value to CRM customers and shareholders.

Instead, horizontal, one-size fits all acquisitions such as Tableau, Slack and now Informatica (perhaps) usually fail to deliver meaningful returns unless those horizontal targets are exceptional companies.

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