Salesforce Buys Cloud-Based Word Processor Quip In £442m Deal

Ben Sullivan,

Salesforce splashes £442 million to add collaboration cloud services to its own portfolio

Salesforce has bought cloud word processing app Quip as the CRM provider continues to add cloud services to its portfolio.

Quip was founded in 2012 by ex-Facebook CTO Bret Taylor and Google App man Kevin Gibbs. The Quip app touts itself as a ‘collaboration’ platform, and already has several high profile customers, including Facebook itself.

The purchase looks to be upwards of around $582 million (£442m), and includes cash and shares, according to this Salesforce 8-K filing.

Quip expansion

Quip iPadIn a blog post announcing the news, Quip said it is excited to continue growing and expanding its offerings as part of Salesforce.

“Salesforce and Quip share the same philosophy about software: it should be in the cloud, built for the mobile era, and be inherently social. Salesforce pioneered the shift to enterprise cloud computing—and Quip has been working since 2012 to reimagine a productivity platform for teams that allows them to be more connected, more collaborative and get more work done,” said Quip.

Quip has done well in the venture capital world, raising $45 million in funding so far.

“We’re inspired by the possibilities ahead of us. As part of Salesforce, we will be able to expand our service more quickly and reach millions of people all over the world — which has been our mission since day one,” read the blog post.

“And, we’ll be able to extend the Salesforce Customer Success Platform in powerful new ways with our next-generation productivity capabilities. The possibilities of mixing data, content and communication are amazing.”

With Salesforce already hooking its CRM up with Microsoft’s Outlook, the final resting place for Quip is not yet known. On Twitter, Bret Taylor said that the purchase will improve Quip’s future, however.

The deal is expected to close on October 31, in Salesforce’s third quarter.

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