Salesforce buys word processing app Quip for $582 million

Salesforce today disclosed that it has acquired word processing app startup Quip for $582 million.

The mobile-friendly Quip app has competed with Google Docs and Sheets and Microsoft Word and Excel. Quip has integrated team communication Slack — even as it launched a competing group chat tool — and other services. Quip has offered a free tier, although over the years it has gained adoption at some companies, including Facebook, Fender, Instacart, Pinterest, and Stripe.

“We’re committed to growing and expanding Quip’s productivity platform as part of Salesforce. If you’re a Quip customer, please know that we’ll continue to provide you with the exceptional service and extraordinary products you’ve come to expect from us, and once the transaction closes, we’ll do so as part of the world’s #1 CRM company,” Quip said in a blog post.

Don't worry, @quip is absolutely not going away. I am still running it and we are all still building it.

— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) August 1, 2016

Brett will work for me and run Quip directly with Kevin! We all love the future together.

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) August 1, 2016

Quip started in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, with 37 employees as of February. Investors include Greylock Partners and Benchmark, as well as Salesforce Ventures. The startup announced a $30 million funding round last year.

Quip chief executive Bret Taylor, previously the chief technology officer at Facebook, recently joined Twitter’s board of directors.

Other recent Salesforce acquisitions include Coolan and Demandware.