‍Published - December 06, 2022 @ 11:05 AM (EET)

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In the latest leadership shakeup, the cloud-based software-provider Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) announced the departure of Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield, effective 31 January.

Lidiane Jones, who had been executive vice president and general manager of the Salesforce Experience Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Marketing Cloud Units, will succeed Butterfield as Slack's CEO.

Moreover, further shaking up the division that Salesforce purchased only a little over a year ago for more than $27 billion in its largest acquisition, two other veteran Slack executives will also depart, the company said Monday.

WHY IT MATTERS

The news follows after Salesforce announced last week its co-CEO Bret Taylor would step down from the post at the end of next month.

In recent months, Salesforce has seen multiple high-ranking departures, including executive vice president of security, Mark Carter, which the company announced internally in late November, would also depart.  

Elsewhere, Salesforce also confirmed chief product officer Tamar Yehoshua and senior vice president of marketing, brand, and communications Jonathan Price will leave the company.

In the three latest trading days, the departures alongside Salesforce's third-quarter earnings report have caused unease among investors.

The stock has had two of its three worst days of the year, plunging 8.3% and 7.4%, respectively, and has now lost 47% of its value for the year, compared to Nasdaq's drop of 28%.

NOW WHAT

While Taylor, who joined Salesforce in 2016 through the acquisition of his startup Quip, intends to return to his entrepreneurial roots, Butterfield made it clear that he is leaving for different reasons.

"As hackneyed as it might sound, I really am going to spend more time with my family (as well as work on some personal projects, focus on health, and generally put time into those things which [are] harder to do when one is leading a large organization)", Butterfield wrote in a Slack message.

Like its high-valued peers, Salesforce has been hurt by soaring inflation and rising interest rates this year, pushing investors to overreact and turn to safer markets.

Moreover, after Salesforce reported third-quarter revenue growth last week of 14%, the company's slowest expansion for any period since its IPO in 2004, and following Taloy's announcement last week, Wolfe Research downgraded the stock.

On Thursday they wrote that the company is moving into "a new and difficult chapter" after execution errors, big-name departures, and slowing revenue growth. 

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