Salesforce Acquires Data Management Company Own for $1.9 Billion, Marking a Return to Major Acquisitions

Salesforce has made a significant move by acquiring Own Company, a data management and protection solutions provider based in New Jersey, for $1.9 billion in cash. This marks Salesforce's most substantial acquisition since its $27.7 billion purchase of Slack in 2021. The decision to acquire Own comes after Salesforce reportedly considered, but decided against, buying data management software company Informatica earlier this year.

Steve Fisher, General Manager at Salesforce, emphasized the importance of this acquisition in a press release, stating that it reflects Salesforce's commitment to delivering secure, end-to-end solutions to protect its customers' most valuable data. Fisher further noted that data security is more crucial than ever, and Own's expertise will strengthen Salesforce’s data protection and management offerings.

Founded in 2015 as OwnBackup and rebranded last October, Own has built a strong reputation in the data backup industry. The company provides various tools and services aimed at enterprise clients, including automated backup and disaster recovery solutions. It initially focused on using open APIs from software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors like Salesforce to back up data from various applications. Own's support now extends beyond Salesforce apps to other SaaS applications hosted on platforms like AWS and Microsoft.

The company was founded by Ariel Berkman, Daniel Gershuni, and Eran Cohen and managed to raise $507.3 million from investors such as Tiger Global, BlackRock, Insight Partners, Vertex Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures. As of August 2021, Own was valued at $3.35 billion, a valuation that highlights the growing importance of data backup and recovery in today’s market. According to KBV Research, the global data backup and recovery sector was valued at $12.9 billion in 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9% from 2017 to 2023. This growth is driven by factors like the rising threat of ransomware, data center disasters, and new data management regulations.

Currently, Own has close to 7,000 customers and hundreds of employees, offering a wide range of data archiving, seeding, security, and analytics capabilities. CEO Sam Gutmann sees the acquisition as an opportunity for Own to complement Salesforce's existing data management tools and help the company offer a more comprehensive suite of data protection and loss prevention products.

“We’re excited to join forces with Salesforce, a company that shares our commitment to data resilience and security,” Gutmann stated. “Together with Salesforce, we’ll deliver even greater value for our customers by driving innovation, securing data, and ensuring compliance in the world’s most complex and highly regulated industries.”

Salesforce expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2025, pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. This acquisition could mark a new phase of big acquisitions for Salesforce, which had previously decided to scale back on mergers and acquisitions under pressure from activist investors. In recent weeks, the company has been more active, acquiring smaller startups like PredictSpring, an omnichannel commerce platform, and Tenyx, which develops AI-powered voice agents.