How the Slack Acquisition Helps Vancouver’s Tech Scene

Salesforce recently acquired Slack, a company founded by Stewart Butterfield, for $27.7 billion. The company officially announced the acquisition on December 1, 2020. 

Slack is a modern enterprise messaging platform and Salesforce is a tried-and-true CRM tool. With the global pandemic shaking up the marketplace, Slack reported a loss and Salesforce took the opportunity to swoop in. With this acquisition, they hope to improve their offerings to compete with the ever-growing Microsoft Teams.

Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, said, “Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise software history, with an incredible ecosystem around it.”.

“This is a match made in heaven,” says Benioff. “Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. I’m thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes.”

Salesforce has already detailed plans to integrate Slack as the new face of Salesforce Customer 360, the Salesforce communication platform.

Who is Stewart Butterfield?

Stewart Butterfield is a Canadian self-made billionaire who was born and raised in British Columbia. He grew up in a small town in northern British Columbia and eventually graduated from the University of Victoria. Butterfield is a local business icon who has started several multi-million dollar companies.

In 2003, Butterfield founded Flickr, a cloud-based photo-sharing platform. In the early 2000s, this was a new concept and Butterfield was a pioneer. He went on to sell Flickr to Yahoo in 2005 for $22 million. 

Following the sale of Flickr, Butterfield worked at Yahoo in Silicon Valley for several years. Later on, he created an online game called “Glitch”. When Glitch didn’t work out, Butterfield expertly pivoted the chat functionality that he developed for the game into the company now known as Slack. 

Slack is often considered to be amongst the original Silicon Valley unicorn companies alongside Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify. 

What does this mean for Vancouver?

The Vancouver Tech community has been following Butterfield’s story closely to learn from his expertise. As Butterfield continues to grow multi-million dollar businesses, Vancouver’s tech scene will continue to grow with him. Not only does his growth bring clout to the scene, but he also brings jobs and opportunities to Vancouver.

While Slack and Salesforce are headquartered in the Bay Area, they both have offices in Vancouver. This acquisition will hopefully mean new jobs and opportunities for Vancouverites and a boost in our local economy.