Google and Salesforce.com have announced an alliance to collaborate across multiple areas including technology development, marketing, distribution, communities and "corporate philanthropy". The move came as no surprise to industry experts. "When Google and Salesforce let it be known that they were working on something jointly, there was a lot of speculation over what it might be," said David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum.
"There were even rumours that Google might be buying Salesforce, but that rumour was easy to dismiss because the two companies would have gone to great lengths to keep negotiations of that kind completely secret. "In the end, it became clear that it was going to be an alliance of some kind. Some may see this as an anti-climax, but clearly this is just a first step and there will be further steps."