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☆ Salesforce drops after reports it is in talks to acquire Informatica
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Alex Koller | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

People pass by the Salesforce Tower and Salesforce.com offices in New York City on March 7, 2019. Salesforce stock fell 5% Monday after reports over the weekend that the cloud software company is in advanced talks to buy data-management firm Informatica. The price being weighed is below Informatica's closing stock price on Friday of $38.48, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the talks on Friday. It would also be its largest deal since purchasing workplace chat developer Slack for nearly $28 billion in 2021, Salesforce's largest acquisition to date. Before paying for Slack, Salesforce bought data visualization company Tableau for $15.3 billion in 2019, and MuleSoft for $6.5 billion in 2018.

Persons: Slack, Salesforce Organizations: Informatica, Wall Street, Reuters Locations: New York City, Redwood City , California

☆ Salesforce beats on earnings, declares dividend. Those selling the stock are missing the big picture
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Adjusted operating margin expanded to 31.4% in the quarter, missing estimates of 31.55%, according to FactSet. No, but it was an overall solid quarter for Salesforce, with the company beating on most key metrics. In its fiscal 2024, Salesforce repurchased $7.7 billion worth of stock, lowering its diluted share count by about 1 million to 983 million. For the first quarter, Salesforce guided for revenues between $9.12 and $9.17 billion, in line with estimates of $9.15 billion. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Salesforce, We're, it's, Wednesday's, Marc Benioff, we'd, Amy Weaver, Benioff, Einstein, Cash, Salesforce's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Justin Sullivan Organizations: Revenue, LSEG, Club, CNBC Locations: Americas, Africa, Asia, Latin America, India, Canada, San Francisco , California

☆ Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones poaches top Slack talent to build a new leadership team
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewNew Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones has hired at least three high-level employees from Slack, where she had been chief executive for about a year until joining the dating app company in January. chief product officer Ali Rayl, chief people officer David Ard, and vice president of global communications Gabrielle Ferree. Rayl, who until recently served as Slack's senior vice president of product, had been at the workplace messaging app for over 11 years. Ard had served as its senior vice president of employee success, while Ferree was its senior communications director. AdvertisementJones, then an executive vice president at Slack parent Salesforce, replaced Butterfield as CEO of Slack in January 2023.

Persons: —, Lidiane Jones, Bumble, Jones, Ali Rayl, David Ard, Gabrielle Ferree, Ard, Ferree, Slack, Jones's, Stewart Butterfield, Slack's, Tamar Yehoshua, Jonathan Prince, Butterfield, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Denise Dresser, Cal Henderson, Fortune, Parker Harris, Salesforce, MuleSoft, Antoine Leblond, Selby Drummond, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Service, Slack, Business, Elliott Management, Sonos, Microsoft Locations: ethomas@insider.com

☆ Salesforce shares are deservedly rewarded after a stellar quarter and a rosy outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Bottom line It was another terrific quarter from Salesforce with steady, double-digit revenue growth and a continued operating margin uplift, leading to a huge increase in earnings per share. Additionally, the topline growth story has some game to it, thanks to the surge in interest in its Data Cloud. By Cloud unit, the most exciting performance in the quarter came from the Data Cloud. Revenue growth accelerated to 22% from 16% in the prior quarter, and the company said it added 1,000 new customers in the quarter alone. Artificial intelligence is driving the interest in the Data Cloud, as more customers seek to use Mulesoft's integration technology to unlock data across legacy systems, cloud apps, and devices.

Persons: Salesforce, Marc Benioff, management's, Salesforce's headcount, Salesforce's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Nicholas Kamm Organizations: Revenue, LSEG, CNBC, Salesforce, Economic, Washington, AFP, Getty Locations: Americas, Africa, Asia, headcount, Washington ,

☆ Salesforce turns to 'boomerangs,' luring back former execs to help reignite growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce.com Inc., right, greets attendees after a keynote at the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Sept. 12, 2023. Ariel Kelman had been away from Salesforce for over a decade, when he received a direct message on Twitter from CEO Marc Benioff earlier this year. "I just thought it was good timing," Kelman said in an interview at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco last week. Kelman spent the few months prior running marketing at a startup called Fireblocks before rejoining Salesforce in June as chief marketing officer. Kelman and Milano are among at least eight ex-Salesforce execs who have rejoined the gang in 2023, as the company approaches its 25th birthday.

Persons: Marc Benioff, Benioff, Ariel Kelman, who'd, Kelman, Miguel Milano, Milano, Brian Millham, Millham, Dreamforce . Kelman, Salesforce, Bret Taylor, it's Organizations: Salesforce.com Inc, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Salesforce's, Salesforce, CNBC Locations: San Francisco, Salesforce, Madrid

☆ Salesforce chief people officer Brent Hyder is leaving, internal message shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Salesforce Chief People Officer Brent Hyder is leaving the company. His exit was announced in an internal Slack message viewed by Insider. Salesforce Chief People Officer Brent Hyder is leaving the company, according to an internal message viewed by Insider. "It's with mixed emotions that I share Brent Hyder has decided to leave Salesforce to pursue a new opportunity," Chief Operating Officer Brian Millham wrote in an internal Slack message. I'm proud of all that we've accomplished together — within the company and within our communities," Hyder wrote in an internal message.

Persons: Brent Hyder, Hyder, Salesforce, Brian Millham, Brent, Nathalie Scardino, I've, —, It's, Slack, Ashley Stewart Organizations: Salesforce

☆ Salesforce quietly terminated the employment of a popular diversity executive
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Salesforce quietly released diversity executive Jacalyn Chapman in May, sources tell Insider. The company told some employees Chapman's role was being eliminated, one of the people said. Salesforce is facing a discrimination lawsuit from another diversity executive. Salesforce terminated the employment of a popular diversity, equity, and inclusion executive in May, people familiar with the matter told Insider. Although the circumstances of her termination are unclear, one person said some employees were told her role was being eliminated.

Persons: Salesforce, Jacalyn Chapman, Marc Benioff, Brent Hyder, Chapman, Ebony Beckwith, Bain, Slack Organizations: Equality, Bain & Company Locations: Salesforce

☆ Benioff vs. Benioff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Within Salesforce, Benioff riffs are at times met with backlash from an angry workforce. "You're not going to fire your family during times of need," a former Salesforce executive told Insider. "I don't think they understand Ohana," Benioff told Insider. "Look, we have to be the example of stakeholder capitalism," Benioff told Insider. A 'New Day' at Salesforce"I use the Japanese principle of shoshin, beginner's mind," Benioff told Insider in a phone interview in March.

☆ Salesforce salaries revealed: See how much the company paid before changing course and conducting layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Salesforce grew exponentially during the coronavirus pandemic, and it paid top dollar for talent. The company discloses salary data in visa applications, and Insider analyzed the data. See how much money Salesforce has paid engineers, managers, and other employees. Under pressure from a swarm of activist investors, Salesforce is shedding workers after rampant hiring during the early years of the coronavirus pandemic. Because Salesforce began its cuts in January, the following data provides a snapshot of how the company paid lavish salaries to compete for talent before the tech sector entered a historic downturn.

☆ Salesforce follows Microsoft in launching A.I. tools for salespeople with help from OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The company said Tuesday that it will release software incorporating artificial intelligence to help salespeople, customer service agents and marketers do their jobs. Salesforce is calling the offering Einstein GPT, drawing on OpenAI's technology that's taken the tech industry by storm since the Microsoft-backed startup opened ChatGPT to the public in November. These AI models sometimes display incorrect information, prompting companies that sell to big businesses and governments to proceed carefully. Like Salesforce, Microsoft is trying to keep the spread of incorrect information to a minimum as it brings AI features to its competing Dynamics 365 software. Salesforce is also touting a new ChatGPT app for Slack that can display information derived from Salesforce.

☆ A leaked draft of Salesforce's business plan focuses on Slack, Tableau, MuleSoft — and admits it's been too slow to integrate acquisitions into its main products
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A draft of Salesforce's internal business plan discusses integrating Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft with its main products. The draft plan shows how Salesforce aspires to fix "delays in M&A integration" and "siloed priorities." A leaked draft of Salesforce's annual business plan shows the company is focused on better integrating Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft into its core products as it faces criticism about its acquisition strategy. Salesforce is using Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft to help fight off activistsSalesforce appears to want to fix this perception, according to the draft document and recent public moves. Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft — and their integration into Salesforce's other key products — feature heavily in a discussion in the plan on how Salesforce will reach its goal of over 30% margins.

☆ Salesforce's strong results are impressive given activist pressure, Wall Street analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Salesforce 's strong earnings were impressive, as it works toward improving profitability in the midst of ongoing activist pressure at the firm, according to Wall Street analysts. The results help Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff fend off pressure from activist investors such as Third Point and Elliott Management that have leaned on the firm. The new price target suggests shares can jump 43% from Wednesday's closing price of $167.35. JPMorgan's Mark Murphy also reiterated an overweight rating on the stock, and raised his price target to $230 from $200 — implying about 37% upside. Nevertheless, he maintained a neutral rating on the stock, with a $182 price target implying just 8% upside.

☆ Salesforce shares climb as growth forecast, buyback plan appease investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) jumped 15% in premarket trade on Thursday after the cloud-based software provider's revenue forecast eased concerns about slowing growth and its move to double its share repurchase to $20 billion appeased investors. Still, Salesforce's first-quarter revenue forecast implied growth of 10%, higher than analysts' estimates of 9%. Other activist investors with a stake in Salesforce include Starboard Value, Inclusive Capital Partners and ValueAct Capital. They have pushed for higher growth and margins, more share buybacks and raised concerns about recent acquisitions. Shares of Salesforce have advanced 26% this year through Wednesday's close, compared with a near 3% gain in the benchmark S&P 500 index (.SPX).

☆ Benioff more than delivers with Salesforce's fourth-quarter beat and sky-high guidance
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Club holding Salesforce (CRM)'s fiscal fourth-quarter results crushed expectations across the board Wednesday, while its forward guidance made clear CEO Mark Benioff is uniquely positioned to deliver profitability at the enterprise software pioneer. Operating cash flow surged nearly 41% from the previous year, to $2.79 billion, beating estimates of $2.5 billion. Benioff said management is "reigniting [Salesforce's] performance culture" and doubling down on the accountable management of its sales organization, while reducing headcount and consolidating the company's real estate footprint. The company is trying to better integrate acquisitions and prioritizing those "core innovations that are driving customer success," Benioff said. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Leaked document lays out Salesforce's plan to hit over 30% margins, directing the company to 'run lean and mean' and stop 'using culture as an excuse'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An internal Salesforce business plan details how the company plans to get profit margins over 30%. One obstacle toward reaching the margin is "using culture as an excuse," the plan states. A draft of Salesforce's annual planning document details how the company plans to exceed 30% profit margins, including significant cost cutting and new releases for Slack, Mulesoft, and Tableau. Insider obtained a full draft of Salesforce's V2MOM document, which stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measurements. Arjun Bhatia, an analyst at William Blair, recently noted that Salesforce's current sales and marketing spending is much higher than peers.

☆ If Marc Benioff is forced to sell Slack to appease activist investors, it would probably be worth less than half the $28 billion he paid just 18 months ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He calculated Slack would be worth less than half what Salesforce paid for it, and could still be worth selling. Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff has multiple activist investors with stakes in his company, circling him to demand changes. One possible outcome is that Benioff is forced to sell or spinoff Slack, according to analysts. It paid more than twice that — $27.7 billion — in an acquisition that closed just 18 months ago. Under siege from fearsome activist investorsWhen we say Benioff has multiple activist investors circling, we mean he's practically under siege.

☆ Salesforce is now facing the very real threat of activist shareholders overthrowing its board and forcing the sale of mega-acquisitions like Slack and Tableau
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Salesforce is now being targeted by a second activist investor: Elliott Management. Activist investors could overhaul Salesforce's board and force it to divest acquisitions like Slack. The cloud software giant is now being targeted by activist firm Elliott Management, which has taken a big stake in the company. Walravens says that the activist firms could encourage Salesforce to rethink its office strategy. The company has invested a lot in a global real estate footprint including its Salesforce Tower headquarters in San Francisco.

☆ Salesforce under siege from top activist hedge fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Software giant Salesforce (CRM), one of the 30 stocks in the venerable Dow Jones Industrial Average, had a miserable 2022. Now the company is under attack from a big hedge fund that wants to shake things up at the company that owns Slack. A source close to the situation said that Elliott Management took a multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce. Elliott would not divulge the size of its position in Salesforce to CNN Business, but the company did confirm its investment. Salesforce also has to contend with tough competition from the likes of Oracle (ORCL), German software giant SAP (SAP) and Microsoft (MSFT), which has a top Slack rival in Teams.

☆ An average 1,600 tech workers have been laid off every day of 2023 so far
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

On an average, at least 1,600 tech sector workers have been laid off every day of 2023 so far, per Layoffs.fyi. That's as 91 tech companies globally have axed 24,151 jobs, just 15 days into 2023. 1,023 tech companies laid off 154,256 workers in 2022, per data aggregated by Layoffs.fyi. That's as 91 tech companies globally have already laid off 24,151 workers just 15 days into 2023, according to data aggregated by Layoffs.ai. This is already about 15% of the 154,256 workers who were laid off by over a thousand tech companies in 2022.

☆ Inside Salesforce's week from hell: Angry employees describe chaos, confusion and 'tone deaf' leaders as they fight for their jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

"We can't sleep at night," one employee told Insider. Senior vice presidents who were not themselves impacted were invited to a mandatory meeting, Salesforce said. "Can execs commit to never referring to Salesforce employees as 'family' again? "Ohana is far gone," one employee told Insider. Are you a Salesforce employee or do you have insight to share?

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff compared losing employees to layoffs to mourning people who've died. Benioff was talking to employees in an all-hands meeting and avoided their questions about layoffs. The company plans to cut 10% of its workforce "mostly over the coming weeks," Benioff told employees. In an email to employees, Benioff said layoffs will happen "mostly over the coming weeks." Amid the planned layoffs, other Salesforce executives have announced plans to leave the company, including Benioff's co-CEO Bret Taylor.

☆ Slack is cutting 10% of its product and engineering org 18 months after Salesforce spent $27.7 billion to acquire it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce has targeted Slack's product and engineering organization for layoffs, sources tell Insider. Slack is laying off 10% of its product and engineering organization, according to two people familiar with the matter. Yet some Salesforce managers, even senior managers and senior vice presidents, were blindsided yesterday as they had no forewarning when the layoffs would commence, Salesforce employees told Insider. In five Slack exchanges viewed by Insider, managers told direct reports they had learned of the layoffs from Benioff's company-wide email. Insider confirmed that roughly 1,000 Salesforce employees were notified on Wednesday of their terminations.

☆ In leaked all-hands meeting, Marc Benioff tells Salesforce staffers to expect staggered rounds of layoffs — but didn't say who will be next
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff held an all-hands Thursday discussing the company's ongoing layoffs. Benioff and other executives did not say which jobs will be cut or how many rounds there will be. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff addressed staff in an all-hands meeting on Thursday for the first time after announcing the company would be cutting 10% of the workforce. But after the nearly two-hour long meeting, which included a question-and-answer session, rattled Salesforce staffers were left with more questions than answers, three employees present at the meeting told Insider. "We just hired too many damn people in the last year and a half," Benioff told staffers.

☆ Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff dodged questions in a rambling 2-hour all-hands. Leaked messages show employees weren't pleased, and one executive even apologized for it later.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Salesforce plans to cut 10% of its workforce, CEO Marc Benioff told employees Wednesday. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff dodged questions about the company's plans to cut 10% of its workforce during a rambling two-hour all-hands on Thursday, and — judging from internal Slack messages viewed by Insider — employees weren't pleased their questions went unanswered. During Thursday's all-hands meeting, Benioff described the company's current situation as a "spiritual moment," and compared layoffs to death. Sources said Benioff has been exerting increasing control over the company, alienating his closest lieutenants while dialing up performance pressure on employees, Insider previously reported. Are you a Salesforce employee or do you have insight to share?

☆ Salesforce tells some managers it has notified all laid off US employees — yet more cuts may be coming
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Salesforce plans to cut 10% of its workforce, co-CEO Marc Benioff told employees Wednesday. Salesforce has told some managers, however, that all US employees have been notified. Salesforce announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, but the company has provided few details — even to managers — about who will be cut and when. What isn't clear is whether this notification is for all of the US employees who will be laid off among the 8,000 employees Salesforce plans to cut or just the first group of them. Are you a Salesforce employee or do you have insight to share?

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