Our other acquisition in the quarter was Salesforce (CRM, Financial), the undisputed king of customer relationship management software. Salesforce provides a one-stop shop for customers to monitor the entire lifecycle of their customers, from sales leads to customer service and support.
As a leading SaaS (software-as-a-service) provider, the company should continue to benefit as more and more businesses shift operations to the cloud. Salesforce is a company we’ve been following for several years. Though it has long demonstrated a durable competitive advantage in its space, we couldn’t get comfortable with its valuation. In the last few months, with interest rates bouncing up slightly, the prices of many SaaS companies were hit with losses, and Salesforce’s valuation became much more appealing.
From Mairs and Power (Trades, Portfolio) Growth Fund's fourth-quarter 2021 commentary.
