Slackforce: Salesforce is buying Slack — the latest in a long list of acquisitions

12/3/20 7:00PM

The big news in the tech world this week was Salesforce, the customer relationship management giant, completing its acquisition of Slack for $27.7bn.

As we noted in September, on paper Slack is exactly the kind of company that might have "done a Zoom" in 2020 as remote work and biz communication tools exploded in usage and popularity. Thanks to competition from Microsoft (and others) that didn't quite happen, leaving its share price roughly where it was at the start of the year... until Salesforce swooped in with an offer for the whole thing.

‍Good at selling, better at buying

‍Salesforce might pay its bills by helping its customers sell and manage client relationships, but its own corporate strategy has been a lot more focused on buying. The Slack deal is Salesforce's biggest yet, and it comes just 16 months since Salesforce splashed $15.7bn on buying Tableau — the analytics and data viz software.

A lot of acquisitions end up being poor deals for the acquiring company. Too much ego, too much "empire-building" on the behalf of management or simply paying too much for the target company means that a lot of deals are often regretted 2, 3 or 4 years down the line. Maybe $27bn and change is too much to pay for Slack, a company that only does ~$230m of revenue per quarter. But, if any tech company has proven it knows how to buy and integrate big deals — it's Salesforce.

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American Airlines joins the flock, hiking bag fees amid higher jet fuel prices

American Airlines on Thursday announced that it, too, will be hiking the fees it charges customers to check luggage.

With the move, all four of the major US airlines, which together control about 80% of the US market, have now hiked their baggage fees in recent days amid surging jet fuel prices.

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Since late March, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Canada’s WestJet, and Southwest have hiked their fees. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.

American Airlines updates bag fees and Basic Economy fares

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

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Less than a year after implementing them, Southwest is also hiking its bag fees

Southwest Airlines has joined the growing list of airlines opting to hike their bag fees amid sustained higher jet fuel costs.

Starting today, the first checked bag at the carrier — which implemented bag fees less than a year ago — will jump from $35 to $45, and the second from $45 to $55. Southwest quietly disclosed the change Tuesday.

Southwest assigned the decision to “part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop.”

As of Wednesday, jet fuel prices dropped to $4.16 a gallon, per the Argus US Jet Fuel Index, down from $4.81 on Tuesday following President Trump’s ceasefire announcement, which sent travel stocks soaring. Major airlines have shed some of those gains in premarket trading Thursday.

With the move to hike bag fees, Southwest joins JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Canada’s WestJet, all of which also boosted fees this month. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.