A corporate one-two punch has left the executive bench at Salesforce looking a bit empty.
What happened: Days after Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor announced he’d step down from the role, Salesforce-owned Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield followed suit, per TechCrunch.
- BC-born Butterfield’s plans include spending more time with family and to “generally put time into those things which [are] harder to do when leading a large organization.”
- The company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing and Brand SVP, President and Strategy Chief, and CEO of its Tableau product are also leaving the company.
So, what does that mean for Salesforce?
It’s not looking great. The cloud company also reported its lowest quarterly revenue growth since its IPO and is anticipating an even worse Q4, so investors are heading for the exits.
- Salesforce’s value has been in freefall since closing a US$27 billion acquisition of Slack in 2021, a pandemic-inspired purchase that was criticized as brash spending.
- Slack may be FTX’s tool of choice to approve expenses, but the platform has lost users in the shift to in-person work and the rise of free alternatives like Discord.
Bottom line: With shares down 47.5% this year and a string of high-profile exits without a clear succession plan, the company is about to enter a “new and difficult” chapter.