Why Salesforce Is Snapping Up AI Startups (and Passing on Marketing Ones)

This article originally ran in Term Sheet, Fortune's newsletter about deals and dealmakers. Last year, the U.S. tech titans slowed their pace of acquisitions, but three companies bucked that trend: Google, Intel, and Salesforce.com. Of the three, Salesforce had the highest acceleration of deals. Last year the $53 billion software company did 120% more acquisitions than it did in 2015, according to CB Insights. I spoke with John Somorjai, the EVP of corporate development and Salesforce Ventures, about AI startups, startup valuations, how the company deals with coop-etition, and what's overhyped. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.