Salesforce paid 387 million for Spiff, well above market value

Salesforce paid nearly twice the estimated market value for its acquisition of commission platform Spiff at the end of 2023. In total, the CRM giant paid $419 million (€387 million).

A recent filing with regulator SEC, following the figures for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, shows what Salesforce paid for the acquisition of Spiff in December 2023. The $419 million is more than one and a half times its estimated market value of $260 million. Of the acquisition amount, $374 million was paid in cash. The deal was finalized in February of this year.

Salesforce also indicates in its filing that it is allocating about $50 million for key “assets” associated with the acquisition. These include nine years of development work on the startup’s technology and five years of built-up customer base. In addition, the CRM giant is reserving $323 million in goodwill for the acquired employees and the market opportunities it expects.

Spiff’s estimated market value was set in May 2023 following a new round of investment that ultimately raised $50 million. Investors included Salesforce itself, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Ventures and several CEOs of other tech companies in their personal capacity. Spiff managed to raise $110 million in capital in its independent existence.

Read more: Salesforce acquires commission tracker Spiff

Addition for CRM and ERP

Spiff provides a platform for automatically determining commissions for sales associates. The platform’s low-code interface for setting up commissions automatically updates them based on sales associates’ targets.

The platform integrates with CRM systems and, it says, can handle even the most complicated commission structures. Salespeople can see their commissions or bonuses in real-time.

Spiff is also developing an AI-based, no-code, self-service toolset that helps platform users set up commission schedules without the need for developers. The platform’s technology thus touches on areas in which Salesforce also wants to develop itself more: AI, no-code, and self-service solutions.

Therefore, Salesforce wants to integrate Spiff technology into its Sales Performance Management software.

Read also: Salesforce records lower than expected revenue for first time since 2006