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Salesforce signs definitive agreement to acquire Demandware in $2.8 billion deal

Salesforce is acquiring enterprise cloud commerce solutions company Demandware in a transaction worth approximately $2.8 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2017, ending July 31, 2016. The acquisition is expected to increase Salesforce’s FY17 total revenue by approximately $100 million to $120 million.

“Demandware is an amazing company—the global cloud leader in the multi-billion dollar digital commerce market,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce, speaking on the acquisition. “With Demandware, Salesforce will be well positioned to deliver the future of commerce as part of our Customer Success Platform and create yet another billion dollar cloud.”

BofA Merrill Lynch is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Salesforce. Goldman Sachs is serving as financial advisor to Demandware.

According to Gartner, worldwide spending on digital commerce platforms is expected to grow at over 14 percent annually, reaching $8.544 billion by 2020.

Update: 06-08-2016

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