December 2, 2020 - Biz in 60

Australia exits first recession in almost three decades Australia has exited its first recession in almost 30 years thanks to a surge in domestic demand. GDP grew by 3-point-3 percent in the third quarter. That's after a 7 percent contraction in the previous three-month period due to coronavirus lockdowns. The growth represents Australia's largest quarterly GDP increase since 1976. Salesforce to buy workplace messaging app Slack for $27.7B Cloud-based software company Salesforce has agreed to buy the workplace messaging app, Slack, for 27-point-7 billion dollars. The deal is the largest in the fast-growing cloud software industry, topping Microsoft's 26 billion dollar purchase of LinkedIn four years ago. The pandemic and the accompanying lockdowns have boosted demand in the industry. US home-rental service Airbnb seeks to raise $2.6B in IPO Airbnb is hoping to raise as much as 2-point-6 billion dollars in its long-awaited initial public offering later this year. In a filing, the US home rental service says it's planning to sell around 52 million shares at between 44 and 50 dollars each. That would value Airbnb at up to 35 billion dollars.