Group 1 - Salesforce (CRM.US) and ServiceNow (NOW.US) are in talks to invest approximately $750 million in cloud service company Genesys Cloud Services, marking a rare instance of competitors in the enterprise software sector supporting the same company [1] - The total investment of $1.5 billion has been announced, with Genesys' valuation estimated at $15 billion [1] - The funds will be used to repurchase shares from some shareholders, while Genesys will continue to be controlled by Hellman & Friedman and Permira [1] Group 2 - Genesys utilizes artificial intelligence to automate customer service functions, including scheduling and forecasting tools to predict user needs [1] - The CEO of Genesys highlighted the growing momentum in agent-based AI and the importance of establishing close connections with customers for autonomous service experiences [1] - Genesys has a history of transactions, having been a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent until 2012 when Permira acquired it for $1.5 billion [1] Group 3 - Salesforce's venture capital arm led a funding round in 2021 that valued Genesys at $21 billion, with participation from ServiceNow, Zoom Video Communications, BlackRock, and D1 Capital Partners [2] - Genesys is actively seeking opportunities for an initial public offering (IPO) and has selected underwriters to advance its listing efforts [2] - ServiceNow and Salesforce have intensified their business collaborations this year, with Salesforce agreeing to acquire Informatica for $8 billion and ServiceNow announcing its largest acquisition to date of MoveWorks, an AI-driven startup [2]