Bowing to activist investors, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff signaled that the firm’s days of spending big bucks to buy other companies are over, at least for the time being.
During Salesforce’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Benioff said that the company has “fully disbanded our M&A committee,” a move that he said reflected the company’s new focus on the company’s existing business.
Mergers and acquisitions have been central to Salesforce’s strategy in recent years, with the cloud computing company completing a string of big-ticket deals: Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021, Tableau for $15.7 billion in 2019, Mulesoft for $6.5 billion in 2018, and more.
That free-spending approach has run into opposition from a coterie of activist investors, including Elliott Management and Starboard Value, which have pressured Salesforce to cut costs. Salesforce laid off 10% of its staff shortly before the end of the quarter and announced its intentions to cut $3 to $5 billion in costs starting with its real estate footprint.
The cost-cutting appears to be working its way to the bottom line. During Wednesday’s call, Salesforce projected a sharp rise in its operating profit margins for the coming year, exceeding analyst forecasts as well as its own prior guidance. Shares of Salesforce jumped 15% in after-hours trading.
It’s not clear whether the M&A committee’s suspension means that Salesforce is pulling back from all deal activity or potentially pausing on large deals. A company representative declined to provide further comment to Coins2Day.
According to Salesforce’s 2022 proxy statement, the four-person M&A committee includes Salesforce directors: former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki as well as Maynard Webb, Craig Conway, and Sanford Robertson. Salesforce announced in January that Robertson would not stand for reelection to the board, as three new directors, including ValueAct Capital CEO Mason Morfit, were appointed.
Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver described the M&A committee’s dissolution as an example of the company’s plan to “continue to focus on shareholder return and disciplined capital allocation.”