Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack • Hacker News Board

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#321

Post by prophesi » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:55 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #141

emmanueloga_ wrote: post #121

Whatever happened to matrix.org/vector/riot.im/element.io? (side note: most confusing branding ever :-/). Element seemed to be picking up some momentum a few months back. There was recent news that they acquired gitter too [1]. These days I only hear about slack exodus and discord this and discord that, though. If I get it right, from all the group messengers that appeared around 6 years ago, the only one with an ope…

I would love to see IRC make a comeback but the fact is IRC on mobile is a pain in the ass. Users want persistence and IRC is designed for the opposite.

Obligatory shoutout to https://thelounge.chat/

Self-hosted an instance two or so years ago and have never run into issues, besides the occasional kick to my reverse proxy. You can create accounts for your friends/family/coworkers, the web app is fast/clean on mobile, and chat logs are persistent.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#322

Post by draw_down » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

dcanelhas wrote: post #301

I'm not a slack power user, but I feel that it's a bit like IRC but with a fancy (and slow) GUI wrapped around it. Certainly I am wrong, but how wrong?

What exactly does this fresh, original observation have to do with the company being acquired?

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#323

Post by s3r3nity » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #118

colinmhayes wrote: post #68

I can't possibly see this going well for salesforce. Buying slack for 70x revenue is insane. Their entire market is going to be eaten by teams and google chat, if it hasn't already. Microsoft has such a gigantic advantage when it comes to enterprise productivity software because everyone is already using office. And those that aren't are on g-suite. Slack's recent guidance was horrible too.

Google chat, lol. Which one? Google Wave? Google Buzz? Google Talk? Google Hangouts? Google Allo? Google Duo? Google Meet? Google chat that came with Google Apps? Or G Suite? Or Google Workspace?

Don’t forget about the new Google Pay, which has its own messaging feature for some reason

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#324

Post by MattJ100 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

Arathorn wrote: post #309

j1elo wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latest open source project that caught my eye in terms of the chosen chat technology was Servo, which has chosen Zulip [0]. Hopefully, in a not too distant future, we'll start seeing more communities opting for Matrix? [0]: https://blog.servo.org/2020/11/17/servo-home/

Clearly we just need to get Zulip talking Matrix and we can all live together in one big {Zulip, Element, Gitter, IRC, XMPP} happy family :D Edit: not forgetting XMPP via the actually-usable-these-days bifrost bridge! https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-bifrost

+= XMPP, don't forget us ;)

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#325

Post by tinyhouse » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

easton wrote: post #14

I'm somewhat surprised that Amazon didn't end up acquiring Slack, considering that the major thing they are missing compared to Microsoft is productivity tools. If they had purchased Dropbox and Slack they could've gotten a foothold rather quickly and slowed down one of Microsoft's major selling points (you already use Office, why not Azure?). Discord could be another interesting company in the chat space, as I'm sur…

| you already use Office, why not Azure?

Not sure why using Office would be a reason to prefer Azure over something else. Can you elaborate? Are there some useful integrations one can benefit from?

Regarding Amazon buying Slack. My guess would be it's too expensive. If you look at Amazon's acquisitions history, you would see they almost never spend more than $1B. The one exception I recall is Whole Foods which they paid ~$13B for.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#326

Post by Bjartr » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

dcanelhas wrote: post #301

I'm not a slack power user, but I feel that it's a bit like IRC but with a fancy (and slow) GUI wrapped around it. Certainly I am wrong, but how wrong?

You're about right, but I think not recognizing the value of having a UX that the average person feels comfortable with Both for daily usage and initial setup. IRC, for all its strengths, does not achieve that.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#327

Post by dheera » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

ivraatiems wrote: post #41

Well, Slack, it was nice knowing you. I wonder who Discord will get bought up by when it replaces Slack after a year or two of Salesforce mismanagement? It's so sad that this is the cycle for software now. Start small, get big fast, get sold, get ruined. I realize I am presupposing Salesforce will ruin Slack - but it's hard to see how they won't , unless they take the approach Microsoft took with Github and keep it a…

> Start small, get big fast, get sold, get ruined

Why does every business have to be a $100G business? Can we support a model in which we have a lot of $100M businesses that are doing great things and delivering quality instead of quantity?

Investors seem to not like that idea, but customers would love that idea. It's unfortunate that our markets are not optimized for customers.

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#328

Post by Nemo_bis » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

hienyimba wrote: post #31

I hope this acquisition does not pass regulatory oversight. This is how it starts. Very soon, we will have another competition-killing, anti-competitive behemoth on our hands like we did with FANGM and then we will suddenly ask ourselves how it all happened. THIS. Right here. Is how it happens.

Considering that Slack itself complained to the competition authorities that there is fierce competition from Microsoft and others, eating Slack's lunch, it seems hard. Salesforce can easily claim that the acquisition doesn't reduce competition, because Slack has a very small market share, or even that Slack would soon be bankrupt and needs to be saved. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/slack-accuses-microsoft-of-a...

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#329

Post by rpncreator » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

The timing of this is impeccable. The Dreamforce (Salesforce's annual developer and user conference) keynote is tomorrow (December 2nd 2020).

Re: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack

#330

Post by xapata » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

chippiewill wrote: post #180

mike_d wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google needs to buy Discord, do the gluey bits to integrate it into GSuite, shut down all its other chat offerings, and then let them do their thing.

What Google heard is: buy discord, glue it into everything and then shut it all down after 2 years.

I'm imagining a meeting a few years back, at Google:

"Ok, you know our motto, 'Don't be Evil.'?"

Heads nod.

"What if ... what if ... what if we simplify that?"

"How so?"

"Just cut off the first word, 'Be Evil.' Simple, elegant."

"I like it!"

----

Jokes aside, I think Google does a pretty good job of keeping the major products steady. Our little cohort on HN isn't a great sample for determining what "major" is.