Salesforce.com Inc. Slack Technologies Inc. is in advanced negotiations for the acquisition, according to those familiar with the matter, with an innovative newcomer in the process of converting Office Email into a deal that will unite a large company into business software.

Companies could reach an agreement in a few days — by the time the salesforce announced its third-quarter financial results on Tuesday, some said. Slack, with a market value of more than $ 17 billion as of Wednesday morning, is Salesforce’s largest acquisition. There is no guarantee that companies will reach an agreement.

Salesforce is the world’s largest retailer of software used by companies to manage their customer relationships. Launched 21 years ago by co-founder Mark Benioff, it was a pioneer in delivering software via the cloud through subscription rather than an expensive transparent installation. Chairman and CEO Mr. Benioff, one of the highest profile executives on Silicon Valley, burned his status Purchasing Time Magazine.

The salesforce has a market value of about $ 230 billion after years of huge profits and its rich stock price — which trades almost 100 times its backward-year profit — providing a valuable currency to use for the company’s acquisition.

Mr. Benioff gradually became an all-purpose software provider to expand the salesforce services provided to customers, assisting companies with everything from analyzing their data using synthetic-intelligence tools to managing employees. This puts the salesforce in more direct competition with other business-software vendors, including Microsoft Corp.