Salesforce in 'advanced talks' to acquire software firm Mulesoft

A deal could be finalised this week

American cloud computing giant Salesforce is thought to be in negotiations to acquire software development firm Mulesoft for an undisclosed sum.

According to a report from Reuters, the acquisition talks between the two companies have been ongoing for a few months are currently in the "advanced" stages and.

Sources claiming an understanding of the situation told Reuters they believe that they could announce a deal as early as this week. However, the firms are still trying to finalise the agreement.

The sources have not been named due to the sensitive commercial nature of the deal. Neither Salesforce nor Mulesoft has commented on the situation.

If the rumours are correct this will not be the first time that Salesforce has been linked with Mulesoft. It invested in the API firm when it filed for an IPO last year. Investment arm Saleforce Ventures also played a leading role in Mulesoft's 2015 $128 million funding round.

CNBC reports that shares in Mulesoft, whose customers include Netflix, Spotify, Barclays, Unilever and the Coca-Cola Company, increased by 20 per cent following the news.

Based in San Francisco, Mulesoft predominately develops API software that allows firms to connect applications, data solutions and connected technologies. It has around 1,000 customers.

Since launching in 2006, the company has unveiled a range of products, including the Anypoint Platform. The latter is positioned as a hybrid mix of software-as-a service (SaaS) and on-premises software.

It is also responsible for APIhub, a public repository for APIs and a community hub for their developers. APIhub publishes more than13,000 APIs and enables developers and SaaS providers to publish and document APIs on the platform. It can also be used for basic queries and as a content publishing platform for API creators.

Salesforce has been broadening its scope from its roots as a SaaS CRM provider to a fully fledged platform-as-a-service (PaaS) firm.