Following the market close today, Salesforce announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, concluding on October 31, 2020. The leading CRM provider declared total revenues of $5.42 billion, representing a 20% increase compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Salesforce also reported a net income of $1.08 billion, translating to earnings per share of $1.15.

Financial forecasts, as reported by Yahoo Finance, predicted the company would achieve earnings of $0.75 per share on revenues of $5.25 billion.

Salesforce stock experienced a decline in after-hours trading, decreasing approximately 3.6% as of this report. The reason for this stock performance was uncertain, potentially linked to the Q3 results, updated Q4 projections, expectations for fiscal year 2022, or the recent announcement of the Slack acquisition.

As recently covered by TechCrunch, Salesforce has agreed to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion in a transaction involving both cash and stock. This valuation appeared to be already reflected in Slack’s share price, which saw a slight decrease following the announcement, though it had previously increased by nearly 50% since initial reports of the potential deal surfaced.

Slack shareholders will benefit from their continued investment. The onus is now on Salesforce’s management to demonstrate that this substantial acquisition will contribute to the company’s continued expansion.

During today’s investor call, Salesforce projected fourth-quarter fiscal year 2021 revenues between $5.665 billion and $5.675 billion, indicating growth of approximately 17% year-over-year. The company also forecasts similar growth of around 17% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.

However, Salesforce anticipates overall growth of 21% throughout fiscal year 2022. This anticipated acceleration includes contributions from Slack:

Therefore, Salesforce stakeholders, following two projected quarters of 17% growth, can expect the company to accelerate to 21% growth in the upcoming fiscal year. The question remains whether this growth justifies the $27.7 billion investment.