Report: Salesforce among firms in acquisition talks with Twitter
Speculation that Twitter is ripe for a sale has been swirling for months as the company has failed to lure new users.
Speculation that Twitter is ripe for a sale has been swirling for months as the company has failed to lure new users.
Firms signed lease deals for nearly 1 million square feet of office space between mid-2015 and mid-2016 in Indy’s metro area, led by a mammoth deal for Salesforce.com, according to a national study.
In the immediate wake of news Wednesday that Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. had agreed to be acquired for $1.4 billion, Indianapolis tech leaders bubbled with praise for CEO Don Brown and with enthusiasm for the possible impact on the city.
Salesforce would save about $3 million on the tax exemption, if the City-County Council designates a downtown office tower as a high-tech. The tax break would come on top of major incentives deal already promised by the state.
Branding Brand, a Pittsburgh-based retail software company with a few ExactTarget alums of its own, has scooped up Indy-based Waysay, founded last year by two former ET’ers.
If completed, the acquisition would be the largest ever for Salesforce, topping its $2.5 billion purchase of Indianapolis-based ExactTarget Inc. in July 2013. Salesforce has about 1,400 employees in central Indiana.
Since 2014 alone, 14 tech or tech-related companies opened offices within a quarter-mile radius of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. And all told, 26 such companies inhabit that roughly 16-block cluster.
Tech talent and naming rights on the state’s tallest building were key factors that helped Indianapolis secure an 800-employee hiring commitment from Salesforce.com this month.
After announcing aggressive expansion plans on Friday, the tech giant faces some headwinds as it tries to recruit talent that’s sometimes in short supply in Indianapolis.
Two women filed separate suits against the tech giant, which employs about 1,400 in Indianapolis, claiming the company passed over them for promotions on multiple occasions due to their race and gender.
M.T. Ray will be responsible for attracting talent to the High Alpha team and helping portfolio companies land leaders and employees.
Salesforce and some of its competitors have been using their Indianapolis operations to help forge a new industry—the creation of cloud-based digital dashboards known as “marketing clouds.”
Speaking in a cafe his company recently opened in downtown’s Gibson Building, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle re-affirmed hiring plans and left the door open for the Connections conference to return to Indy.
Salesforce.com is using its Indianapolis-based Salesforce Marketing Cloud division as the springboard for a nascent business line that company officials believe has the potential to grow rapidly for years to come.
Salesforce.com appears to have scrapped plans to build its own downtown headquarters building and instead is seeking a huge block of space in an office tower to satisfy its aggressive growth plans.