Software maker Braze soars 50% as Salesforce agrees to buy it for $5.66 bln

Shares of Braze, which operates an AI marketing platform, surged almost 52% on Tuesday to its highest level since early 2025. Salesforce will acquire the company at a premium to its market price, aiming to combine technologies to deliver a “wow moment” in customer interactions.

Braze jumped almost 52% on the Nasdaq on Tuesday to $45.60 per share, their highest level in more than a year and a half. The market was reacting to the company’s announcement that Salesforce, a provider of cloud-based customer relationship management software, had agreed to acquire it.

The deal values Braze at around $5.66 billion. Shareholders will receive $47.50 in cash per share, according to the press release. That represents a 58% premium to Monday’s closing price, the day before the deal was announced, Reuters noted. The companies plan to close the transaction in Salesforce’s fiscal 2028, which begins February 1, 2027, and is subject to approval by Braze shareholders and regulators.

Salesforce’s marketing unit has been struggling, with revenue essentially flat or declining in several recent quarters, Bloomberg reports. Marketers need agentic solutions that can understand customers and act in real time, according to the company’s press release.

That is precisely what Braze’s technology does: it processes customer behavior data in real time and helps companies personalize messages across mobile apps, sites, email, SMS, and messaging services. AI helps select the content, offers, channels, and timing of those communications.

Every interaction is an “opportunity to wow your customers,” Patrick Stokes, Salesforce’s president of applications and marketing, said in the press release. He believes combining Braze’s capabilities with Salesforce’s will deliver “that wow moment” in every customer interaction.

Following the acquisition announcement, several Wall Street analysts revised their rating on Braze to “hold.” The stock now has 16 “hold” ratings versus five “buy” calls, according to MarketWatch data. A month ago, Wall Street unanimously recommended buying. The average target price of $45.60 per share is slightly below Salesforce’s offer.

The proposed deal is a step in the right direction for Salesforce, whose products in some areas had increasingly been seen as outdated, KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Jackson Ader said, as quoted by Bloomberg. The acquisition will allow Salesforce to eliminate a “scrappy competitor” in Braze, Piper Sandler analyst Billy Fitzsimmons added.

TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood assessed the antitrust risk as relatively low and suggested the hefty premium could reflect competition among potential buyers. Evercore ISI called the size of the premium “a bit odd” unless there had been competing bids for Braze.