Walk into virtually any tech company, startup, media agency, or enterprise firm in America today and you will find the same thing open on someone’s screen — a grid of channels, a blinking notification dot, and the unmistakable interface of Slack. It has become the default language of modern work. But who actually owns it? The answer takes you from a failed video game in Vancouver, Canada, through one of the biggest software acquisitions in history, and lands squarely at the feet of Salesforce — one of the most powerful enterprise software companies in the world.
What Is Slack?
Slack is a cloud-based team messaging and collaboration platform used by businesses of all sizes to communicate, share files, run workflows, and connect with third-party apps — all in one place. Slack holds roughly 18% of the global team collaboration software market. The platform serves over 750,000 organizations and has 47.2 million daily active users in 2025.
At its core, Slack organizes conversations into channels — dedicated spaces for specific teams, projects, or topics — replacing the scattered email threads that used to slow businesses down. It integrates with thousands of tools including Google Drive, Zoom, GitHub, Jira, and its parent company’s own Salesforce CRM platform.
Who Owns Slack Right Now in 2026?
The direct answer is clear: Slack is owned by Salesforce, which acquired the workplace messaging platform for $27.7 billion in July 2021. Slack operates as a wholly owned subsidiary. Its largest indirect shareholders are Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street through their Salesforce equity holdings.
Slack Technologies, LLC operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM). Salesforce closed the $27.7 billion acquisition on July 21, 2021, removing Slack from the public market.
That means Slack is no longer independently traded on the stock market. You cannot buy Slack stock. When you invest in Slack, you are investing in Salesforce — and Salesforce is owned by its public shareholders, with Marc Benioff as the single most powerful individual stakeholder.
Ownership and Key Stakeholders Table
| Owner / Shareholder | Role | Stake | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) | Direct Parent Company | 100% of Slack | Acquired Slack on July 21, 2021 for $27.7 billion |
| Marc Benioff | Salesforce Co-Founder & CEO | ~3% of Salesforce (CRM) | Founded Salesforce in 1999; final authority over all Slack decisions |
| Vanguard Group | Largest Institutional Shareholder of CRM | ~8.5% of Salesforce | Largest single outside investor in Salesforce |
| BlackRock, Inc. | Second Largest Institutional Shareholder | ~7.2% of Salesforce | World’s largest asset manager |
| State Street Global Advisors | Institutional Investor | Significant CRM stake | Major passive index fund investor |
| Fidelity Investments | Institutional Investor | ~5% of Salesforce | Active and passive fund investor |
| Rob Seaman | Interim Slack CEO | No significant equity | Named interim CEO after Denise Dresser left for OpenAI in December 2025 |
| Stewart Butterfield | Original Founder (Historical) | No longer a shareholder | Co-founded Slack in 2013; departed Salesforce in December 2022 |
The Origin Story: A Failed Game That Changed How the World Works
The story of Slack is one of the greatest accidental pivots in technology history.
Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov founded Tiny Speck in 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The team first built an online game called Glitch. When Glitch failed commercially, the founders pivoted to the internal messaging tool they had built for their own team.
That internal tool — built purely to help their own developers communicate while making a video game — turned out to be far more valuable than the game itself. Butterfield and his team recognized what they had built, packaged it as a standalone product, and launched Slack publicly.
Slack launched in August 2013 as a preview release and opened to the public in February 2014. Within its first day of public availability, 8,000 companies signed up.
Eight thousand companies in a single day. That kind of adoption rate — without paid advertising, without a sales team — signaled that Slack had hit on something that millions of businesses had been desperately waiting for. Within two years, it was valued at over $1 billion, earning it the “unicorn” label. Within four years, it was valued at nearly $20 billion.
From Startup to $27.7 Billion: How Salesforce Bought Slack
Slack went public in June 2019 through a rare direct listing — bypassing the traditional IPO process — at a market value of $19.5 billion. It was a statement of confidence: the company did not need to raise fresh capital; it simply wanted its shares to trade on the open market.
That independence lasted less than two years.
On December 1, 2020, Slack and Salesforce announced an agreement for Salesforce to acquire the company for approximately $27.7 billion. At the time, it was the largest acquisition in Salesforce’s history and one of the biggest software deals ever recorded. Marc Benioff was betting that the future of enterprise software was not just about managing customer relationships — it was about becoming the central operating system for how businesses communicate and collaborate.
The deal closed on July 21, 2021. From that moment, Slack ceased to be an independent public company and became a division of Salesforce.
What Happened to Slack’s Founder After the Acquisition?
On December 5, 2022, Salesforce announced that Butterfield was leaving Slack and would be succeeded by Lidiane Jones, an executive vice president at Salesforce. On November 13, 2023, Salesforce executive Denise Dresser was appointed to replace Jones. Dresser departed for OpenAI in December 2025, and Rob Seaman was named interim CEO.
So as of 2026, Slack is on its fourth CEO in just five years — and its current leader, Rob Seaman, holds the role on an interim basis while Salesforce decides on a permanent appointment. Stewart Butterfield, the man who built the whole thing from a failed video game, has been gone since late 2022.
How Slack Fits Into Salesforce’s Strategy in 2026
Slack is not just a standalone messaging product inside Salesforce — it is increasingly the front door to Salesforce’s entire AI-powered enterprise ecosystem.
The product reports under Salesforce’s Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack and Other segment. Marc Benioff stated that Slack-specific revenue is expected to reach approximately $3 billion in fiscal 2026, the most recent CEO-level figure publicly disclosed.
Salesforce recorded $41.5 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2026. Salesforce’s market capitalization ranged between $148 billion and $186 billion through early 2026.
Slack integrates directly with Salesforce’s Agentforce — the company’s flagship AI agent platform — allowing businesses to trigger automated workflows, surface customer data, and run AI assistants directly inside Slack channels. This tight integration is the strategic core of why Salesforce paid $27.7 billion for it: not just to own a messaging app, but to make Slack the nerve center of every business that already runs on Salesforce.
Who Are the Biggest Shareholders of Salesforce (and Therefore Slack)?
Since Slack is a wholly owned subsidiary of Salesforce, understanding who owns Slack means understanding who owns Salesforce. The largest shareholders of Salesforce include Vanguard Group at approximately 8.5%, BlackRock at approximately 7.2%, and Fidelity at approximately 5%.
Marc Benioff, the co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, holds approximately 3% of Salesforce shares — a relatively small stake for a founder, but one that is worth billions of dollars at current market valuations. His influence over Salesforce — and therefore Slack — comes not from majority share ownership but from his founding role, his board position, and his decades-long stewardship of the company.
Slack vs. Microsoft Teams: The Ownership War Behind the Product War
No discussion of who owns Slack is complete without acknowledging the product it competes with most directly — Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams is owned by Microsoft Corporation and is bundled into Microsoft 365, giving it access to hundreds of millions of potential users through existing enterprise licensing deals. Teams surpassed Slack in daily active users in 2020 and has maintained that lead ever since.
Slack, under Salesforce’s ownership, has chosen a different path — focusing on depth of integration with business tools, openness to third-party platforms, and increasingly AI-powered features. While Teams wins on pure volume, Slack wins on ecosystem depth and the loyalty of developer-forward, tool-heavy organizations.
The battle between these two platforms is ultimately a battle between Salesforce (valued at ~$153 billion) and Microsoft (valued at ~$3 trillion) — two of the most powerful enterprise software companies in human history.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns Slack in 2026? S
lack is fully owned by Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM), which acquired it for $27.7 billion on July 21, 2021.
Q2. Is Slack publicly traded?
No. Slack was removed from the stock market after Salesforce completed its acquisition in July 2021.
Q3. Who founded Slack and when? Slack was co-founded by Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov in 2009 in Vancouver, Canada.
Q4. Who is the current CEO of Slack in 2026?
Rob Seaman is the interim CEO of Slack, appointed after Denise Dresser left for OpenAI in December 2025.
Q5. How much did Salesforce pay for Slack?
Salesforce acquired Slack for approximately $27.7 billion — the largest deal in Salesforce’s history at the time.
Q6. How many users does Slack have in 2026?
Slack has approximately 47.2 million daily active users and serves over 750,000 organizations worldwide.
Q7. Who are the biggest shareholders of Salesforce?
The largest shareholders are Vanguard Group (~8.5%), BlackRock (~7.2%), and Fidelity (~5%).
Q8. How much revenue does Slack generate?
Slack-specific revenue is expected to reach approximately $3 billion in fiscal year 2026, according to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Slack is owned by Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) — a publicly traded American enterprise software company that acquired it on July 21, 2021 for $27.7 billion. Slack operates as a wholly owned subsidiary and generates approximately $3 billion in annual revenue. The largest shareholders of Salesforce — and therefore indirect owners of Slack — are Vanguard Group (~8.5%), BlackRock (~7.2%), and Fidelity (~5%).
Slack was built by Stewart Butterfield and three co-founders out of the ashes of a failed video game in 2009, launched publicly in 2014, went public in 2019, and was acquired by Salesforce two years later. As of 2026, the company is led by interim CEO Rob Seaman and is being deeply integrated into Salesforce’s Agentforce AI platform — the next major chapter in the story of the world’s most influential work chat app.