Filed by salesforce.com, inc.
pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933
and deemed filed pursuant to Rule 14a-12
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Subject Company: Slack Technologies, Inc.
Commission File No.: 001-38926
Date: December 23, 2020
This filing relates
to the proposed merger of Slack Technologies, Inc., a Delaware Corporation (Slack), with Skyline Strategies I Inc. (Merger Sub I), a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of salesforce.com, inc., a Delaware
corporation (Salesforce), pursuant to the terms of that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 1, 2020, by and among Salesforce, Merger Sub I, Skyline Strategies II LLC, a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned
subsidiary of Salesforce, and Slack (the Merger Agreement).
The following article published on CNN on December 23, 2020 was shared
by Salesforce through its Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
We can all get through this together. Thats what is really important to
us. Marc @Benioff, @CNNs 2020 CEO of the Year, reflects on leading Salesforce through the pandemic.
Important: sforce.co/3mvqMzc
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/23/investing/marc-benioff-salesforce-ceo-of-year/index.html
Below is an excerpt of the above referenced article published on CNN as it pertains to the transaction contemplated by the
Merger Agreement:
New York (CNN Business) The year 2020, to put it mildly, was a challenging one for Corporate America. Still, some
high-profile companies and their leaders thrived during these difficult times. Salesforce in particular had a truly standout year.
Salesforce (CRM) was added to the venerable Dow Jones Industrial Average in August. In December the cloud computing company
announced a bold acquisition of Slack (WORK) while continuing to post strong gains in sales, earnings and its stock price. Shares are up nearly 40% this year.
Thats especially been the case during the pandemic
and it was one of the driving forces behind the recent decision to buy Slack for more than $27 billion.
Slack is our new headquarters.
We are moving into Slack, Benioff said. We will be working from home forever. Will physical offices come back? Yes. But the home workplace will be dominant.
The Slack acquisition helps give Salesforce a leg up on rivals such as SAP (SAP) and Oracle (ORCL) and also puts the company
firmly in the sights of tech giant (and fellow Dow component) Microsoft (MSFT).
Microsofts launch of Slack competitor
Teams arguably contributed to the decision by Slack, which went public in 2019, to join up with Salesforce. Benioff welcomes the challenge of going toe to toe with Microsoft.
Putting Salesforce and Slack together is a one plus one equals seven equation. Slack benefits because of our reach, Benioff said, adding that the
move makes Salesforce a leader in analytics and collaboration.
Benioff said hes not worried that Slack might be too much for Salesforce to digest
following the companys series of big acquisitions over the past few years most notably the purchase of software firms MuleSoft and Tableau.