Salesforce’s acquisition of ExactTarget

Salesforce’s acquisition of ExactTarget
Name	ExactTarget acquisition
Date	2013
Acquirer	Salesforce
Target	ExactTarget
Value	US$2.5 billion
Type	Acquisition

Salesforce’s acquisition of ExactTarget Salesforce completed a landmark acquisition of ExactTarget in 2013, combining a leading customer relationship management provider with a prominent digital marketing and email marketing platform. The deal involved executive negotiations among key figures from Marc Benioff, Scott Dorsey, and investors including Insight Venture Partners and Battery Ventures. The transaction reshaped competition among Oracle, Adobe Systems, IBM, and other cloud marketing vendors.

Background

ExactTarget, founded in 2000 by Kurt Kittrell, Mark Donnigan, and Scott Dorsey in Indianapolis, grew into a prominent provider of email marketing and marketing automation services with offices in San Francisco, London, and elsewhere. Salesforce, established by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez in 1999, had expanded from software as a service origins into a broad cloud computing ecosystem. Prior to the acquisition, ExactTarget had pursued an initial public offering and raised capital from investors such as Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Insight Venture Partners, while Salesforce pursued growth through purchases including Heroku, Radian6, and Buddy Media.

Announcement and Deal Terms

On June 4, 2013, Salesforce announced an agreement to acquire ExactTarget for approximately US$2.5 billion in a mix of cash and stock. The offer followed previous large technology acquisitions such as Google/AdMob and Facebook/Instagram in scale and strategic intent. The board-level negotiations involved legal and financial advisers from firms associated with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and corporate counsels linked to Salesforce.com, inc. and ExactTarget, Inc.. The transaction specified tendered shares, regulatory filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and shareholder votes in compliance with Delaware corporate law precedents.

Strategic Rationale and Integration

Salesforce positioned the acquisition as a move to integrate ExactTarget’s digital marketing and email marketing capabilities into its Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, and broader Cloud computing offerings. Executives framed the deal as competitive positioning versus Oracle’s Eloqua, Adobe’s marketing cloud, and IBM’s marketing initiatives. The strategy aimed to create a unified marketing automation stack connecting customer data platforms and analytics for multinational clients including Coca-Cola, AT&T, Home Depot, and media companies such as Time Inc..

Regulatory Review and Approval

The acquisition required customary antitrust review and filings with U.S. regulators and notifications to international authorities, touching jurisdictions such as the DOJ and the European Commission. Regulators assessed competitive effects relative to firms like Oracle and SAP, though the deal faced limited formal opposition. Approvals were secured after review of market concentration and remedies to address potential competition concerns, consistent with precedent investigations involving Microsoft, Google, and other large technology consolidations.

Financial Impact and Market Reaction

Financial markets reacted with scrutiny to the US$2.5 billion price tag; Salesforce’s stock traded against movements in NASDAQ indices and analyst commentary from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and boutique technology research firms. Some investors compared the multiple to valuations in recent deals like VMware transactions and debated synergies versus dilution effects on earnings per share. Short-term trading captured volatility, while long-term investor presentations sought to quantify expected revenue accretion and cross-sell potential across Salesforce’s installed base including IBM partners and enterprise customers.

Product and Technology Integration

Post-closing, ExactTarget’s core platform components were rebranded and integrated into Salesforce Marketing Cloud, aligning with other Salesforce acquisitions such as Radian6 for social listening and Buddy Media for social marketing. Integration efforts involved engineering teams from ExactTarget and Salesforce working on APIs, data models, and connectors to Force.com and Heroku. The combined platform sought to link real-time analytics and customer journey orchestration, drawing on talent and technologies from ExactTarget's Fuel API and Salesforce’s Einstein initiatives.

Legacy and Long-term Outcomes

The acquisition accelerated Salesforce’s transformation into a major provider of digital marketing services, prompting competitive responses from Adobe Systems, Oracle Corporation, and IBM. ExactTarget’s technology became foundational to Salesforce Marketing Cloud, influencing subsequent acquisitions and product strategy including investments in machine learning, data integration, and enterprise marketing services. The deal remains cited in analyses of cloud consolidation alongside transactions like Microsoft/LinkedIn and Adobe/Omniture, and it shaped careers of executives who later joined or advised firms across the Silicon Valley and Indianapolis ecosystems. Category:Salesforce acquisitions