Elliott Management has made a multibillion-dollar investment in U.S. cloud-based software provider Salesforce but has yet to declare its intentions, according to media reports.
The investment, originally reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes less than two months after it was announced that Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor would be leaving the company after seven years, on January 31.
According to the newswire, Jesse Cohn, managing partner at Elliott, said the investment firm has a deep respect for the company and what its co-founder, CEO, and Chairman Marc Benioff has built, and that it looks forward to “working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value befitting a company of its stature.”
Salesforce was also targeted by activist Starboard Value in recent months with its founder Jeff Smith arguing that Salesforce possessed the potential to create “significant” value for shareholders in the next few years through a “better balance” of growth and profitability.
The company, best known for its CRM application, started the year by undergoing cost-cutting measures, laying off 10% of its workforce and reducing its office space in certain markets. Benioff cited that the layoffs were as a result of spending cautiousness from customers due to fears of an economic slowdown and having hired too many employees during a period of surging revenue during the Covid-19 pandemic. Salesforce’s employee numbers rose by 31,000 between January 2020 and October 2022.
Following news of Elliott’s stake late on January 22, Salesforce’s share price jumped by over 3% to $156.25 in pre-market trading on Monday.