Salesforce Buys Consumer Data Firm Krux

Marketing data giant Salesforce has acquired San Francisco-based cross-screen data management solutions provider Krux. The Wall Street Journal reports that the agreed purchase price was $700m, mixing cash and stock.

Krux offers a platform for the collection, management and analysis of raw consumer and web audience data. Users can create dynamic segments based on behavior, demographics, search words or third party data for use in real-time targeted advertising. Monthly, Krux supports more than 200 billion data collection events, processes more than five billion CRM records, and initiates more than 200 billion personalized 'experiences'.

Following the buy, Salesforce's customer relationship management platform will be merged with Krux's data management platform, the 'Intelligent Marketing Hub'. Salesforce will also make use of Krux's capabilities to extend its Marketing Cloud's audience segmentation and targeting capabilities, and to feed its artificial intelligence solution Einstein with billions of new signals.

Krux CEO and co-founder Tom Chavez (pictured) comments: 'As a part of the Salesforce ecosystem, we've had the opportunity to work closely with the Salesforce team to create integrations that make our customers even more successful. Beyond the strategic and technology fit, we believe our companies' core values, which include innovation, trust, transparency, and most importantly customer success, are in perfect alignment and offer an exciting foundation upon which we can continue building the industry's smartest Marketing Cloud'.

Web sites: www.salesforce.com and www.krux.com .