January 23, 2023
According to people familiar with the matter, activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has made a multibillion-dollar investment in Salesforce Inc., the world’s largest software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.
It’s a move that will likely put added strain on Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff, who is struggling to restart the company’s slowing growth. Since its peak in November 2021, the company’s stock price has dropped by roughly 50%.
Earlier this year, Salesforce Inc announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce and close some offices due to rapid pandemic hiring, which left it with an overburdened workforce in the midst of an economic slowdown.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news first, stating that details of Elliott’s plans for Salesforce could not be revealed at this time. However,
Elliott Jesse Cohn stated that: “Salesforce is one of the preeminent software companies in the world, and having followed the company for nearly two decades, we have developed a deep respect for Marc Benioff and what he has built. We look forward to working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value befitting a company of its stature.”
This is the second activist firm to take a stake in Salesforce in three months, following Starboard Value, which announced an undisclosed stake in October and said the company was suffering from a valuation discount due to a “subpar mix of growth and profitability.”
The sources for this piece include articles in Reuters and Axios.
