Salesforce revealed its acquisition of Slack, Amazon introduced the Mac mini to its cloud services, and Google Maps launched a newsfeed feature. This is the Daily Crunch for December 1, 2020.

Leading the News: Salesforce Acquires Slack for $27.7 Billion

The acquisition, initially reported last month, is now finalized.

Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff stated, “This represents a truly ideal combination.” He continued, explaining that Salesforce and Slack working together will define the future of business software and reshape how individuals work in an increasingly digital and remote environment.

This transaction, involving both cash and stock, positions Salesforce as a stronger contender within the enterprise communication sector. Slack, which became a publicly traded company last year, appeared to be a likely acquisition candidate, given its comparatively low stock performance and a net loss of $147.6 million over the two quarters concluding on July 31st of this year.

Major Tech Companies

AWS now offers the Mac mini through its cloud platform — This announcement was among those made by Amazon Web Services during its re:Invent conference today.

Google Maps challenges Facebook with the introduction of a dedicated news feed — The new feed is intended to simplify the process of discovering the latest information and recommendations from reliable local sources.

Facebook’s independently-managed ‘oversight’ board has selected its initial cases, with the majority concerning issues of hate speech — The Facebook-funded organization, created to provide a degree of separation from difficult content moderation choices, has announced the first set of cases it will review.

Startups, Funding, and Venture Capital

SoftBank invests $690 million in Sinch, a Swedish cloud-based customer engagement firm — Sinch delivers cloud-based “omnichannel” voice, video, and messaging solutions, enabling businesses to connect with their customers.

Voi, a European ‘micromobility’ rental provider, secures an additional $160 million in equity and debt financing — Voi plans to utilize the new funding to invest in technological advancements, expand its presence in existing markets, and introduce its newest e-scooter model to additional cities.

Floww obtains $6.7 million to support its data-driven marketplace, which connects founders with investors based on merit — Founder Martijn De Wever, having personally made over 160 investments, identified a need for a platform facilitating connections between investors and startups.

Insights and Analysis from Extra Crunch

Bottom-up SaaS: A framework for aligning pricing with customer value — Increasingly, individual employees are influencing the selection of tools used within their organizations.

Who is developing the future of the grocery store? — Startups specializing in cashierless checkout, software analytics, and robotics are poised for success in the retail sector.

(Extra Crunch is our subscription program, designed to make information about startups more accessible. You can register here.)

Other News

China’s Chang’e-5 lunar lander achieves a successful landing on the moon — China’s Chang’e-5 mission marks the third instance of a mission retrieving lunar soil or rock samples.

U.S. shopping app downloads on Black Friday reached a record high of 2.8 million installs — A significant number of U.S. consumers conducted their Black Friday shopping from home using mobile devices this year.

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