A week after Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Braze for approximately $5.66 billion, nobody on our panel could tell you what the product portfolio will look like in two years. That was exactly the point of the conversation.

On 27 October, the Salesforce Marketer Group Prague brought six of us together online for an open, unscripted hour. More than 100 people registered at a few days’ notice, and attendance peaked at 77 live. Mounir put it well: he had never seen a Trailblazer event come together this fast with this many people joining.

The panel:

This is my write-up of what we discussed and where I have landed afterwards. One thing first: the deal has not closed, and until it does, Braze and Salesforce are two separate companies. Below I start with what Salesforce has officially said; everything after that is the panel’s interpretation, not inside knowledge.

What Salesforce has actually said

Before the speculation, the facts. Salesforce set out its position in its press release of 20 October 2026:

The deal	A definitive agreement valuing Braze at approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value, or $47.50 per share in cash. Braze serves around 2,770 customers.
The fit	Braze is expected to strengthen Marketing Cloud’s cross-channel personalisation, and to complement Data 360, Customer 360 and Agentforce.
The architecture	Both companies describe a shared commitment to an open, composable approach, including working with data from cloud data warehouses.
The brand	Braze CEO Bill Magnuson says Braze will continue building as Braze and keep investing in its community of customers and partners.
The timeline	Closing is expected in Salesforce’s fiscal year 2028, subject to Braze shareholder approval and regulatory approvals.

Several of the panel’s readings line up with this, notably the composable route and the focus on high-volume B2C. On roadmaps, migration paths and the future of existing products, Salesforce has not said anything yet. Anything on those topics is speculation, including ours.

First reactions: shock, anticipation and one bad cop

Most of us were surprised. Not everyone was.

I had to read the announcement three times. My first reaction was close to shock, then quickly: this is fantastic. Braze has been leading the Gartner Magic Quadrant for marketing automation this year and has been one of Salesforce’s strongest competitors. As someone inside the ecosystem, I see it as a strong addition to the marketing portfolio.

Daria was less surprised, because she has been living the rivalry. LeverUp has a Salesforce team and a Braze team, and the banter between them has long included the line “Salesforce should just buy Braze”. Her first reaction was not “why?” but “why already now?”. A week in, she sees positive energy on both sides.

Mounir had expected Salesforce to buy a competitor for two or three years, as it has struggled to win B2C marketing on core. What surprised him was the choice. Braze is a MACH Alliance member and composable by design, which differs from Salesforce’s everything-on-the-platform narrative.

Ali has implemented Braze and calls it a fabulous platform. His shock was about timing: what does this mean for the last 18 months of investment in Marketing Cloud Next, and for the message that everything is moving onto core?

Timo took the contrarian view, and it ended up shaping much of the hour. Narrowing competition is rarely good for anyone, he argued, including Salesforce. Braze has been the pace-setter that pushed Salesforce, and with it gone, complacency becomes a risk.

What is Salesforce actually buying?

The panel landed on five readings. They overlap more than they compete.

Reading	What it implies
A B2C platform, with MC Next moving towards B2B	MC Next takes the space Pardot used to own; Braze carries high-volume B2C
A composable route around Data 360	Brands on Databricks or Snowflake can stay Salesforce customers without adopting Data 360
Mobile-first engagement	Push, in-app, content cards and web SDK, where Salesforce never really took off
Reaching brands that chose Braze over MCE	MCE customers leaving for Braze while keeping Service Cloud
Growth and expertise	Braze’s growth and its marketing automation specialists join Marketing Cloud

B2B versus B2C. Daria does not see Braze as a complement to MC Next, simply because it is a separate platform. Her bet is that MC Next drifts towards B2B, where Pardot used to sit, while Braze becomes the B2C answer Salesforce does not have today.

Composable instead of Data 360. Daria hears it from customers all the time. They feel pushed from MCE onto core with Data 360, and those already invested in Databricks ask why they need it at all. Braze lets them say “use Databricks or Snowflake, or Data 360 if you want it”, without forcing the data layer. Salesforce’s own announcement points the same way, describing a shared commitment to an open, composable approach.

Mobile first. Ali reminded us that Braze started life as Appboy, focused on mobile before adding email and SMS. Push, in-app inbox and gamification never took off across the Salesforce stack the way they did elsewhere. Daria added that mobile first does not require an app: content cards through the web SDK are a simpler kind of personalisation than what Salesforce Personalization offers.

Reaching brands that chose Braze. My view from customers: for multi-cloud organisations, MC Next is close to a no-brainer, because Flow, Agentforce and core are already in place. For a commerce brand running e.g. Shopify or Magento with no Salesforce footprint, implementing Data 360 and MC Next can feel like a lot to take on. Daria sees the pattern directly: some prominent brands left MCE for Braze but kept Service Cloud, and Braze’s integration with Salesforce core is still mostly custom-built.

Growth and expertise. Mounir highlighted that Salesforce also gains a team of marketing automation specialists. Salesforce makes the same point, saying Braze brings deep expertise in mobile, data engineering and customer engagement to Marketing Cloud. Combine that with Salesforce’s scale and investment, and it could be very interesting.

Where this leaves Marketing Cloud Next and Engagement

One reading came up repeatedly: Braze may matter more for the long-term path of Marketing Cloud Engagement customers than for MC Next. Salesforce’s own framing is that Braze strengthens Marketing Cloud, and it has said nothing about timelines for existing products.

When the first version of MC Next was released, my honest thought was “is this what we will have to migrate to?”. Salesforce has since accepted that MCE must coexist with MC Next for longer than many expected. MCE+ and MCAE+ give “classic” customers access to Flow and Agentforce without leaving ExactTarget or Pardot. My reading is that Salesforce knew those customers could otherwise leave, likely for Braze.

Braze could add another option to that picture. If MCE customers eventually decide to move, they would have a Salesforce destination beyond MC Next and stay within the Salesforce family. Timo described it as a potential graceful exit from Engagement. To be clear, this is our interpretation; I would not read any MCE timelines into this deal.

What the interim looks like is the open question. Timo expects surface-level integration in the mid-term, much as with Datorama, followed by migration tooling from MCE to Braze. The flexible data extension model would make that feasible. He also asked whether Salesforce will build the same kind of bridge to Braze that it has built between Flow and Journey Builder.

Mounir sketched a longer-term picture. Salesforce now thinks headless, so perhaps it has bought a set of capabilities, exposed through APIs, some from MCE, some from Braze, some from Data 360. Daria pushed back. Braze’s own data platform and segmentation are among its biggest strengths. If Data 360 becomes the only way to feed Braze, Salesforce would have to cut native functionality, and the exodus would simply move on, perhaps to Bloomreach.

Then there is the brand. Evergage became Salesforce Personalization; Slack kept its name. Daria says Slack is exactly the comparison people at Braze are using, and hoping for, and Braze’s CEO has said they will continue building as Braze. Beyond that, the detailed roadmap will take time to become clear, which is only reasonable for a deal that has not yet closed.

What past acquisitions can and cannot teach us

Mounir’s answer to Ekaterina’s history question was blunt: probably not much, because this deal is different in kind.

Past marketing acquisitions filled gaps. Salesforce lacked social listening, so it bought Buddy Media and Radian6. It lacked a DMP, so it bought Krux. Braze does not fill a capability gap; it competes with MCE head-on. In Mounir’s view, this deal is more about adding growth and momentum than about filling a gap.

Some patterns do still apply:

• Integration tends to be shallow first. Recent deals have been connected rather than deeply integrated. Timo and Mounir both expect surface-level integration before anything deeper, as with Datorama.
• Brands are not safe, but some survive. Evergage was absorbed and renamed; Slack kept its identity.
• People often stay. Ekaterina recalled Evergage solution engineers who were retrained and still work in Salesforce’s solution engineering and architect teams today.

One attendee asked whether, given the history of ExactTarget, Pardot and Heroku, Braze itself might eventually be sunset. Mounir turned the question around and suggested the more relevant long-term question is about MCE. That is speculation; Salesforce has announced nothing on it.

The case for caution

The most important argument of the session was Timo’s: less competition usually means less innovation.

After the deal closes, Braze will spend a period on compatibility and organisational alignment rather than new features. That is natural, but it slows things down. It also opens space for other vendors in the martech landscape. Timo named Bloomreach, formerly Exponea, and Hightouch as the ones to watch.

Mounir had already seen it happen. Hightouch’s messaging after the announcement focused on its ability to send marketing messages, positioning it as a Braze alternative. Hightouch had come under pressure on segmentation when Databricks launched its customer data offering, so a big competitor being absorbed by a market leader gives it room to move.

Mounir also noted that some buying decisions are on hold while customers wait for more clarity, which is understandable at this stage.

What customers should do now

On this the panel agreed completely: don’t panic, and buy yourself time.

The question I hear most is what MCE customers should do right now. My answer is to take your time. The deal is expected to close in Salesforce’s fiscal year 2028, and until then Braze is not part of Salesforce. The longer you wait, the more clarity you get, so unless your licence renews tomorrow, I would not make a move in the coming months.

This is not only about licences. It is about the thousands of hours you have put into what you run today, and about business continuity: can you do the same thing equally well somewhere else? That is a huge decision, and panic leads nowhere.

Practical advice from the panel:

1. Shorten the commitment. Mounir and Timo both recommended negotiating a one-year renewal or an extension rather than a three-year contract. It may cost a premium, but locking into specific SKUs now is the bigger risk.
2. Ask for flexibility in the contract. If you must renew long, Mounir suggested asking for a licence swap option to Braze later.
3. Watch the economics change. If you are considering leaving, check what that would mean for your other Salesforce contracts. Once Braze is part of Salesforce, that picture may look different, and a double run during migration might become cheaper.
4. Mind the pricing models. Braze is more consumption-based than Marketing Cloud. Mounir expects some blend into flex credits over time, and renewing too early means you will not benefit.
5. Get a third option on the table. With Salesforce and Braze becoming one company, it is worth benchmarking against Bloomreach, Hightouch, Iterable or Customer.io.
6. Plan for retraining. Ekaterina reminded us that any new platform means a learning curve, for clients as much as for us architects, consultants and developers.

Timo added a note to Salesforce itself: you are also playing the long game. Forcing customers into a corner now just opens the door to the competition.

What it means for the community

Ekaterina closed with the question many of us were thinking: are we all about to become “Trailbrazers”?

Mounir was honest that he was never excited about learning Flow and core, and is far more excited to work with Braze and its ecosystem. His worry is that the community splits. If MC Next goes B2B and Braze goes B2C, we may end up with core practitioners on one side and Braze practitioners on the other.

Timo, inevitably, called it “a Braze of fresh air”. He hopes Salesforce brings the Braze community in better than it did with MuleSoft and Slack, which were largely left to their own devices. He also hopes it gives next year’s Connections event the lift it could use.

Ekaterina admitted to some sadness: it feels like an era is ending. But Braze also brings new people, new certifications and a new chapter.

My take

I came out of the hour more convinced that Salesforce is buying several things at once: a composable B2C platform, mobile-first capabilities, growth and a product team. These readings are not mutually exclusive.

The numbers explain the urgency. Marketing and Commerce growth has slowed to roughly flat, and was Salesforce’s slowest-growing segment in Q4 FY26. Braze is growing at around 26% a year and overtook Salesforce in this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Timo’s point about innovation stayed with me most, because I had not seen the deal that way. If you absorb your fiercest competitor, what is your incentive to push harder? It is a hypothesis, not a fact. Timo, I think you are a smart guy, and I really hope you are wrong.

For customers, my advice has not changed. A new tool does not solve the underlying problems by itself. Decide on your concepts, your data and your change management before you decide on the platform. Concepts first, platform second.

I will be following this closely, and I suspect we will need a follow-up session once the deal closes. Thank you to Ekaterina for pulling this together so quickly, and to Daria, Mounir, Ali and Timo for an honest conversation.