Business News 
In late-2020 Salesforce made headlines by announcing they would acquire Slack for nearly $28 billion USD; last week they completed their acquisition.
While the tech community awaits news about the integration of the businesses, the real estate community is eager to see what will happen with Slack’s global offices.
An unintentional success story
A homegrown Canadian startup, Slack started from humble beginnings in Vancouver’s Yaletown neighbourhood.
Founded in 2009 by Stewart Butterfield, after selling his previous business Flickr to Yahoo, the business was originally launched to create a multiplayer video game.
The video game didn’t gain traction, however the internal chat and messaging platform they created while building the game (Slack) quickly became a viral sensation with tech, engineering and customer support teams.
Not long after their debut, the startup received significant interest from investors and larger customers. They affectionately became known as the “email killer” and were described by Wired as a “trojan horse for bigger ideas” when they began to integrate with numerous third-party platforms like Dropbox, Google and Zendesk.
Slack’s offices around the world
On a smaller scale, Slack became known in the real estate community for building some of the most beautifully appointed offices in the world.
With offices in major cities across the world, the distinction of having the best space was a high bar to clear. Slack was competing for talent with other big tech companies in cities like San Francisco, London, Sydney, New York, Toronto, Dublin, Denver and Vancouver.
With each new office build-out, Slack found a way to create spaces that were unique to their teams in each market. By engaging both their global workplace team and local design talent, the result was a portfolio of spaces that embodied Slack’s culture while maintaining a distinct connection to each city.
The impact of hybrid work and remote work
Both Slack and Salesforce, as top-tier employers, have developed post-covid strategies for their teams to work in hybrid, remote and in-office environments.
Slack has made a few announcements about remote work, including their work from home post on their blog in August 2020. Their timing to return to the office is still to be determined; when they do return, many employees will be allowed to apply for permanent remote work, however their salaries will likely be adjusted based on each person’s location.
Salesforce has received considerable media attention with their hybrid work announcements, with the goal of creating a best workplace from anywhere, for everyone. Their return to work plan will include a mix of flex work, where “most employees” will visit the office 1 – 3 days per week; a small population of their workforce will work in the office 4 – 5 days per week; and some employees will be fully remote.
Photos of Slack’s offices in major cities
Having built their brand around working remotely – with their app – the tech and real estate communities are interested to see what Salesforce is planning to do with Slack’s offices post-acquisition.
Below is a look at Slack’s offices in major cities around the world (photos courtesy of Slack).
Follow this link for more photos of Slack’s offices around the world, or visit the featured space below.
