Salesforce’s decision to buy Slack for $27.7 billion is proof that the collaboration tools space is becoming vital to the market, according to one of its rivals.
Matthew Hodgson, CEO of Element, another secure collaboration platform said: “Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack is an interesting move for the company and validates the continued demand for collaboration tools in the market.”
He said that the move fuels the rivalry between Microsoft and Slack, which escalated recently when Slack filed an antitrust complaint against the former for unfairly using Office to promote Microsoft Teams. If Slack are to successfully compete, they need to join an open ecosystem for collaboration.
Hodgson said that Salesforce was pragmatic when it comes to integrating with third-parties, given the broad range of systems it integrates.
“Hopefully, Salesforce will help Slack understand the importance of interoperability with other messaging platforms to foster competition and empower users to choose their preferred chat service, rather than being locked-in to a single vendor”, he said.
