Slack aside, Salesforce's other significant deal directly eyes public sector
By
Ross Wilkers
Salesforce's announcement of its megadeal for Slack came alongside another pending acquisition that directly eyes a greater public sector footprint.
Salesforce certainly shared a giant piece of news Tuesday when the cloud software giant announced its agreement to acquire the workplace chat app company Slack for $27.7 billion.
But that was not all Salesforce had to share. Closer to home (the public sector), Salesforce is also acquiring Acumen Solutions to grow its professional services offerings for government agencies and businesses in the thick of digital transformation efforts.
Terms of that deal were not disclosed. Salesforce expects closure to take place late in the second quarter of its next fiscal year that starts Feb. 1. Acumen should contribute $150 million in additional revenue for Salesforce’s 2022 fiscal year, according to the buyer.
McLean, Virginia-based Acumen received $66.1 million in prime obligations from federal agencies during the government’s 2020 fiscal year with 56.9 percent of that from the Veterans Affairs Department, according to USASpending figures.
Much of that is likely from a $260 million enterprise case management solutions contract the VA awarded to Acumen two years ago.
Acumen also touts itself as a Top 10 Partner of Salesforce in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with a focus on enterprise cloud solutions.
Other work in the U.S. federal space includes projects for the Defense Department and civilian agencies such as the Health and Human Services Department, and Securities and Exchange Commission.