Salesforce to Acquire Marketing Software Maker Braze for Nearly $5.7 Billion

Salesforce said Tuesday it has agreed to buy customer engagement platform Braze for about $5.66 billion including debt.

Braze, which was founded in 2011 and went public a decade later, is a longtime competitor of Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud product, which businesses use to communicate with customers via email, text messages and push notifications. Braze’s ability to ping customers in specific situations, like when they’ve abandoned an online shopping cart, could help Salesforce upgrade Marketing Cloud, according to a current Salesforce employee. The deal price represents a roughly 58% premium to Braze’s closing price Monday.

Salesforce has been on an acquisition spree lately. This year alone, it struck deals to buy customer service startup Fin for $3.6 billion, content maker Contentful and customer research startup Listen Labs.