Salesforce to Enhance Data Security with Impending Acquisition of Own Company

Salesforce, the world’s no. 1 AI CRM, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Own Company, a leading provider of data protection and data management solutions. Own empowers organisations to ensure the availability, security, and compliance of mission-critical data, while unlocking new ways to gain deeper insights from this data.

Under the terms of the agreement, Salesforce will acquire Own for approximately USD $1.9 billion in cash, net of the value of the approximately 10% of outstanding shares currently owned by Salesforce, subject to customary purchase price adjustments.

“Data security has never been more critical, and Own’s proven expertise and products will enhance our ability to offer robust data protection and management solutions to our customers,” said Steve Fisher, President and GM at Einstein 1 Platform and Unified Data Services. “This proposed transaction underscores our commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions that protect our customers’ most valuable data and navigate the shifting landscape of data security and compliance.”

“We’re excited to join forces with Salesforce, a company that shares our commitment to data resilience and security,” said Sam Gutmann, CEO at Own. “As digital transformation accelerates, our mission has expanded from preventing data loss in the cloud to helping customers protect their data, unlock business insights, and accelerate AI-driven innovation. Together with Salesforce, we’ll deliver even greater value for our customers by driving innovation, securing data, and ensuring compliance in the world’s most complex and highly regulated industries.”

As a Salesforce AppExchange partner since 2012 and a Salesforce Ventures portfolio company, Own has grown beyond its initial backup and recovery offerings, and today is trusted by nearly 7,000 customers to safeguard mission-critical data. The Own Data Platform provides data archiving, seeding, security, and analytics capabilities that help customers ensure the availability, compliance, and security of their mission-critical SaaS data. Own also helps organisations leverage their historical data to optimise decision-making and gain a competitive advantage.

Salesforce is Addressing a Growing Need for Data Security

The acquisition comes at a time when customers are increasingly focused on mitigating data loss due to system failures, human error, and cyberattacks. The advent of AI has made customers even more aware of the need to protect and manage access to data. By investing more deeply in pure cloud-native data protection solutions, the world’s no. 1 AI CRM aims to accelerate the growth of its Platform Data Security, Privacy, and Compliance products.

Own’s capabilities will complement Salesforce’s existing offerings, such as Salesforce Backup, Shield, and Data Mask. This will enable Salesforce to offer a more comprehensive data protection and loss prevention set of products, further reinforcing its commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions. These solutions are essential for protecting customers’ most valuable assets—their data—and for deriving the most value from their historical data by leveraging AI to understand trends and forecast future growth.

Transaction Details

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals. Based on the expected timing of closing of the transaction, there is no anticipated change to the company’s fiscal year 2025 financial guidance, previously announced on 28 August 2024.

The transaction will not impact Salesforce’s capital return program. Salesforce expects to achieve accretion on a free cash flow basis starting in the second year following the closing of the transaction and continuing thereafter.