Salesforce co-CEO resigns after disappointing business outlook

Marc Benioff (left) and Bret Taylor

The top Salesforce duo who were still fooling around on stage in September are history.

(Photo: Bloomberg)

Dusseldorf A change is once again imminent at Salesforce: Co-CEO Bret Taylor, who has been at the helm of the US cloud service provider alongside founder Marc Benioff for just over a year, surprisingly resigns at the end of January.

He is grateful for “six fantastic years” in the company, but now wants to “return to his entrepreneurial roots,” said the 42-year-old in a statement.

For Salesforce, the departure is a great loss. “We are still in shock and extremely saddened by the loss of Bret,” Benioff said at an analyst conference. Taylor was considered a product visionary and a potential successor to the 58-year-old founder.

Because he has many other interests: In the past, Benioff has shown political and philanthropic ambitions. He has also co-owned Time magazine with his wife since 2018.

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After the announcement on Wednesday, the share price fell by more than six percent in after-hours trading. In addition to the surprising personnel, the disappointing outlook for the end of the year should also have contributed to this: The SAP competitor did better than expected in the third quarter, but made up for the fourth an increase in sales of only ten percent in prospect – significantly less than what shareholders are used to from the past few years.

Already in 2020, a double leadership at Salesforce collapsed

The leading duo had not given any indication of the impending farewell. In September, Benioff and Taylor fooled around together on stage at the Dreamforce customer conference – and put on bunny ears modeled on a product’s mascot.

It is “a partnership in the truest form,” Taylor gushed to media representatives. Trust is the most important value.

A few weeks later this is gone. None of those involved showed any public anger: Taylor will always be part of it, Benioff explained. Nevertheless, the personnel once again raises the question of how well the charismatic founder can share power over his company.

Marc Benioff

The charismatic founder is now alone at the head of the group again.

(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images)

A dual leadership collapsed in 2020 when then co-CEO Keith Block – a software industry veteran – resigned after 18 months without giving a reason. Just a few weeks ago, strategy chief Gavin Patterson announced his departure.

With Taylor, Salesforce is also losing significant technology expertise. The software developer was involved in several projects that are legendary in Silicon Valley: After studying at Stanford, he helped to invent the Maps map service at Google. Then he founded the social network Friendfeed with friends, which was later taken over by Facebook – including the “Like” button.

Bret Taylor was instrumental in the Slack acquisition

With Quip, Taylor developed a word processor that was designed for collaboration and use on mobile devices – at a time when smartphones were just about to break through. Salesforce spent $750 million on the start-up.

The product did not have the expected success under the umbrella of the group. But the manager proved himself and rose to the top.

Taylor started his largest project, at least financially, about two years ago when Salesforce announced that it would take over the communication service Slack for $28 billion – it was one of the most expensive acquisitions in the history of the software industry. The manager was instrumental in the negotiations.

Bret Taylor

The co-boss will give up the post at the end of January.

(Photo: IMAGO/IP3press)

It wasn’t just about adding a new product to Taylor’s portfolio. “Many of the changes brought about by the pandemic will be permanent – we have learned to work digitally,” he said in an interview with the Handelsblatt almost a year ago.

Thanks to Slack, Salesforce wants to provide the technology for a “digital company headquarters” in which employees from different locations can work together comfortably. “This is a great opportunity for growth – it was an important part of our discussions with our shareholders when we closed the deal,” Taylor said at the time. Benioff now has to develop this vision alone.

Taylor will definitely have more time for new projects: Until a few weeks ago, he was also the head of the Twitter board of directors alongside his job at Salesforce. He has also lost this job since Elon Musk took over the online service.

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