Jeff Ubben speaks with Salesforce CEO as more activists target the software giant
According to sources, Jeff Ubben of Inclusive Capital had discussions with Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, on Monday. Inclusive Capital holds a stake in the CRM giant. There is no information on what Ubben’s presence will mean for the cloud-based software company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Salesforce has also attracted the attention of activist Elliott Management, which made a multibillion-dollar investment late Sunday. In October, Starboard Value announced that it had acquired an undisclosed stake in Salesforce. It stated that Salesforce had suffered from a valuation discount due to a “subpar mix of growth and profitability.”
Salesforce is in the middle of restructuring amid slowing growth and recession fears. Earlier this year, the firm planned to cut jobs by 10%, or 7,000 employees, and close some offices. Salesforce expects its employee restructuring to be complete by the end of the 2024 fiscal year and real estate restructuring to finish in the 2026 fiscal year. The company expanded rapidly during the pandemic and the years before as cloud adoption skyrocketed. It also completed large acquisitions such as Slack and Tableau. The company’s share price has climbed 17% this year but is off nearly 30% in the past year as of Monday’s close.