Israeli startup Own purchased for $1.9 billion by Salesforce
Having started out to help clients recover data from discs and hard drives, company earned $250 million a year specializing in Cloud-based information
Own, an Israeli startup specializing in data backup, was acquired by Salesforce for $1.9 billion in cash, the San Francisco-based software giant announced Thursday.
The deal is pending approval from regulators, though Salesforce expects it will be finalized by the fourth quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, according to a statement by the company.
Salesforce already owns 10 percent of Own, and the new deal will see it acquire the remaining 90% of the company, placing the Israeli startup’s total value at over $2.1 billion.
Unlike most startups, Own began within the framework of an existing business, according to Haaretz. The company was founded in 2006 in Herzilya under the name of “Recover Information Technologies” by Eran Cohen, Daniel Gershoni and Ariel Berkman, and initially specialized in recovering information from hard drives, discs and memory cards for private and business clients.
Eventually, the company began data recovery from Cloud-based platforms like Gmail and Facebook, using technology developed by Berkman, who served in Unit 81 of the Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence branch, Haaretz reported.
In 2015, the company changed its name to OwnBackup — and eventually Own — after a few US-based venture capitalists invested in it. OwnBackup began dealing exclusively with backing up and retrieving data from companies using Salesforce management software, Haaretz reported.
OwnBackup continued raising money, reaching a valuation in 2021 of $3.35 billion. Despite its growth and expansion into data backup for other types of software, which led it to bring in some $250 million a year, the company fired 170 out of about 900 workers it had at the time, as was commonplace in what is considered to have been a technology bubble in the stock market at the time.
The merger with Salesforce is occurring after years of unsuccessful attempts on the part of Salesforce to develop data backup technology that could compete with Own. It is unclear whether Salesforce will continue developing Own’s technology for other types of software or just keep the technology for backing up Salesforce data.
Own’s employees based in Israel will join Salesforce and begin working at the latter’s Israeli developmental center.
