5 Reasons Why Microsoft Just Might Be Salesforce's Secret Suitor

A Match Made In The Cloud?

If (and it's a big if) the Bloomberg News report that Salesforce has enlisted bankers to assess a potential acquisition is true, we might soon witness a momentous event in the software industry -- the largest deal ever of its kind and a seminal moment in the history of cloud computing, one with major implications for the channel.

So it should come as no surprise that the Bloomberg story, which only cited anonymous sources, unleashed a firestorm of speculation in lieu of any more factual information to prove or debunk the claims.

It's fun to guess, especially when the cost eliminates all but a rarefied few companies that could even contemplate the CRM giant's roughly $50 billion price tag.

Fingers seem to point most directly at two Salesforce competitors that have strong, although not always healthy, ties to the company: Oracle and Microsoft.

Here's some more speculation about why CRN thinks the suitor hails from up north.

More CRM

Microsoft may still be the biggest and baddest software company out there, but its CRM product, Dynamics, falls short of that stature.

SAP and Oracle both have greater market share in that category. But if Salesforce -- the most dominant and visionary CRM vendor ever known to man -- became a division of Microsoft, they would have to make pilgrimage to Redmond, Wash., to chant, "We're not worthy."

Bill Gates infused in the company he founded a culture averse to not being No. 1.

More Love

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been hanging out this week at Microsoft's Build conference in San Francisco, and by all accounts, he's been enjoying a love-fest with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Which makes sense, since both CEOs are passionate cloud computing advocates.

Since taking the reins of the world's largest software company, Nadella has driven Microsoft unwaveringly into the cloud with great results. He's also pursued a tighter relationship with Salesforce.

Oracle's Larry Ellison has, at times, been less than a cloud visionary.

And let's not forget that while Ellison and Benioff go way, way back, there doesn't seem to be much love lost between the two these days.

More Integrations

Microsoft simply has more mutual product development and tighter integrations with Salesforce.com

The companies unveiled a formal strategic partnership in May of last year that delivered Salesforce's powerful Platform-as-a-Service, Salesforce1, to Windows users. The companies have also integrated Salesforce's CRM with Office and Power BI, Microsoft's business intelligence platform.

This week, Salesforce revealed a connector to Excel for its Wave analytics platform.

A lot of the heavy lifting has already been done to make it possible for the two software ecosystems to co-exist harmoniously under one roof.

More Money

Not any tech company can drop $50 billion cash, but Microsoft can.

Microsoft has more money laying around than any of the other speculative suitors. With roughly $90 billion cash on hand, Microsoft is the only CRM competitor that can buy Salesforce without any leverage, if it so chooses.

Oracle, as of late, has been saving as well, amassing in its coffers quite a chunk of change. But even if the database giant stripped down to its proverbial undies, it still wouldn't get all the way there.

More Joint Customers

This is just inevitable given Microsoft's unrivaled market penetration across all its product lines.

Because it shares so many customers with Salesforce, it would be easier for Microsoft than anyone else to on-board those accounts, unite the sales teams and integrate marketing efforts.

Microsoft would see its ecosystem swell in a way that almost felt natural. And the various Salesforce clouds would likely enjoy an infusion of new customers, alleviating frequent Wall Street worries that the company is close to maxing out its potential market.

Which sounds like a win-win.