ServiceNow remains committed to a “very disciplined” merger-and-acquisition strategy even as it pursues its largest deal yet, according to CFO Gina Mastantuono.
The enterprise software company said last week that it plans to acquire artificial intelligence startup Moveworks for $2.85 billion.
“We’ve always done these acquisitions of talent and technology capabilities,” Mastantuono said in an interview. “This is slightly larger in price given the AI capabilities that the company has.”
ServiceNow says the proposed acquisition, which is expected to close in the second half of the year, will beef up its agentic AI and automation offerings.
Mountain View, California-based Moveworks’ platform leverages agentic AI technology to assist employees with finding information and automating tasks across various business functions, including human resources and finance. The company’s clients include Hearst, Instacart, Palo Alto Networks, Siemens, Toyota and Unilever.
ServiceNow’s leaders “wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we weren’t looking at larger and transformational M&A,” Mastantuono said. However, she added that investors can “100% expect that we will continue with a very disciplined approach to M&A as we always have.”
The planned acquisition comes as tech giants’ heavy spending on AI is coming under growing scrutiny from Wall Street. It also comes as tech executives are navigating an increasingly complex deal environment under President Donald Trump.
Tech M&A rebounded in 2024 and is slated for further growth this year, despite a recent wave of market uncertainty tied to shifting federal policies on issues such as tariffs, Lawrence Chu, co-chair of the global M&A group at law firm Goodwin Procter, said in a blog post last month.
While global M&A dealmaking started out 2025 on weaker-than-expected footing, this will likely prove to be only a temporary setback as businesses and policymakers adjust to the evolving landscape, Chu predicted.
“In other words, the animal spirits might have gone into temporary hibernation, but they will eventually emerge and drive tech dealmaking in 2025,” he said.
Trump in January announced a $500 billion, four-year effort to boost national AI infrastructure. Oracle, OpenAI, SoftBank and MGX pledged at the time to jointly deploy an initial $100 billion toward that initiative.
Meanwhile, SAP and Workday are among the tech giants that signed AI-related M&A deals last year.
Chris Stafford, a partner at business and technology consulting firm West Monroe, said he expects to see more agentic AI deals like ServiceNow’s proposed acquisition of Moveworks.
“It’s absolutely one of the biggest growth areas in the software industry today,” he told CFO Dive.
ServiceNow’s latest deal will allow the combined company to deliver “a unified, end to end search and self service experience for all employee requestors across every workflow — all from a single entry point,” according to a press release on the transaction.
Moveworks’ AI agent and enterprise search services will “expand ServiceNow’s reach to every requestor in an organization,” the release said.
“What’s clear to us and to ServiceNow is that the the future centers on this advancement of agents inside the enterprise to be able to automate and streamline work,” Moveworks CEO Bhavin Shah said in an interview.
The deal’s $2.85 billion price tag signals “high expectations” from ServiceNow, according to a blog post published by research firm Everest Group.
“The real test will be in execution — whether ServiceNow can successfully integrate Moveworks’ NLU [Natural Language Understanding] capabilities without compromising security, governance, or flexibility,” the blog post said. “If executed well, this move could be a defining moment in enterprise AI. If not, it risks being another AI acquisition with potential left unrealized.”
