The potential deal to purchase Informatica, a software-as-a-service and data management company that offers cloud-based enterprise data management for healthcare, would be one of Salesforce’s largest acquisitions, and would position it to tap into a vast array of cloud-based products, artificial intelligence co-pilot capabilities and more. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Salesforce is in advanced talks to purchase Informatica, and the official announcement could come as early as next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

While neither company has commented on the deal as of Tuesday, the large consolidation of software services could attract regulatory scrutiny, Bloomberg reported Monday. The news service also said that its sources indicated that talks about buying the company to boost its data capabilities could end without a deal.

Analysts are reporting such an acquisition as having "strategic merit" for Salesforce.

MarTech called a potential Informatica acquisition close on Monday, but said that in 2023 investors questioned whether acquisitions were good for Salesforce's stock value, and the company made changes, including ending its mergers and acquisitions committee and increasing share buybacks.

Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud for Healthcare and Life Science enables organizations to exchange data on local systems and through hybrid and multi-cloud environments using Health Level 7 v2, HL7's FHIR standard, and the EDI X12 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act standard, according to the company's website.

THE LARGER TREND

Salesforce purchased HIPAA-compliant Slack nearly three years ago for a reported $28 billion and acquired Tableau in 2019 for $15.7 billion. In 2022, Salesforce launched Patient 360, a customer relationship management platform that integrates many features made possible by its M&As. 

Integrations include MuleSoft Accelerator for Healthcare, which exchanges data under HL7 and FHIR standards to unify data from electronic health records, labs, billing and scheduling, and Tableau Accelerators for Health Cloud, which offers healthcare organizations customizable analytics dashboards.

Last year, Salesforce integrated Einstein artificial intelligence services into its Customer 360 for Health platform to improve home healthcare with unified patient insights, including preferences and medication information, from their personal devices.

ON THE RECORD

"Data governance and data quality have risen in strategic importance with [the] advance of genAI as organizations modernize their data estates," according to a Citi analyst note published on Seeking Alpha. Researchers noted that bulking up with a "significantly larger" organization could help Salesforce better capitalize off that trend and further grow its cloud offering. 

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.