Salesforce to Acquire GoInstant for More Than $70 Million

Salesforce CRM is about to acquire GoInstant, a young startup specializing in downloads-free co-browsing. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, GoInstant was founded in 2010 with seed financing led by Freestyle Capital's Josh Felser and David Samuel, as well as Baseline's Steve Anderson. LinkedIn LNKD co-founder Reid Hoffman is also an investor. According to the Wall Street Journal, GoInstant raised $1.7 from these and other investors, including Yuri Milner, a prominent Facebook FB investor, and Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's former VP of User Growth, Mobile and International. GoInstant serves corporations who wish to implement co-browsing in sales and customer support scenarios, among others. The service differs from other co-browse and screen share technologies by allowing its users to interact together in real-time. Clients of GoInstant include In February, the company announced a new feature called GoInstant Chat, enabling participants to communicate in real-time during a co-browsing session. Salesforce, which recently acquired Buddy Media for more than $600 million, will reportedly pay more than $70 million for GoInstant. Full Disclosure: Jason Raznick, Benzinga's President and co-founder, is an investor in GoInstant. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ