According to Business Insider, RBC Capital Markets believes Google may purchase Salesforce and use it to better take on Amazon and Microsoft.
Google is currently a distant third among U.S. cloud providers. As of 2019, Gartner estimates Amazon’s AWS has some 47.8% of the market, Microsoft Azure accounted for 15.5% and Google Cloud brought up the rear with a mere 4%.
Even worse, a recent report shows that 97 percent of companies polled are using Azure to some degree, and far more companies are planning to deploy Microsoft’s cloud platform than are planning to use AWS or Google. While Amazon has room to lose market share, Google Cloud does not.
According to Business Insider, a source said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has the goal of Google becoming “at least the No. 2 cloud.” For that to happen, however, the company will need to gain significant ground. RBC doesn’t see that happening without making a major move.
“We don’t see a viable organic way to get there,” said the RBC note.
If Google does purchase Salesforce, RBC estimates the deal could be worth as much as $250 billion. While expensive, it would catapult the company into the No. 2 spot.