Salesforce to acquire Braze for $5.66B in all-cash deal

Braze shareholders will receive $47.50 in cash per share, a premium of about 58.1% to the last close. Braze serves about 2,770 customers, including Canva, Instacart and Venmo, and its AI tools help marketers choose content, offers and channels. Salesforce expects the deal to close in its fiscal 2028 and does not expect it to change its fiscal 2027 forecast. The purchase follows other large Salesforce moves in AI, including a $3.6 billion deal for the AI agent platform Fin earlier this year and an $8 billion deal for Informatica. Futurum Equities analyst Shay Boloor called Braze a real-time engagement layer that Salesforce's marketing business has historically lacked. For founders, the price shows that customer engagement software with AI features can command a strategic premium from incumbents trying to add agents and data-driven messaging to existing suites. Startups selling into marketing teams should expect buyers to pay for proven customer reach.