Bret Taylor steps down as Salesforce co-CEO, Marc Benioff stays as CEO

Salesforce mentioned Wednesday that Bret Taylor will step down as co-CEO on Jan. 31, leaving Marc Benioff alone once more on the high of the cloud software program firm he co-founded in 1999.

Benioff intently embraced Taylor, who joined the corporate by the 2016 sale of his productiveness software program startup Quip. Taylor performed a key position in Salesforce’s $27.1 billion acquisition of Slack, the corporate’s largest transaction ever.

Salesforce promoted Taylor, 42, precisely a 12 months in the past from the place of president and chief working officer. Benioff described Taylor then as “an exceptional trade chief who has been instrumental in creating unimaginable success for our prospects and driving innovation all through our firm.”

Benioff mentioned that Taylor left Salesforce to discovered a brand new firm.

“We’ve to let him be free, let him go, and I perceive, however I do not prefer it. And Bret, you already know that you just’re all the time going to be our brother. We love you deeply, you might have a house right here, we’re gonna attempt to get you again by some means. Do not suppose you are gonna by some means get out of this alive since you’re not,” Benioff mentioned on an earnings name with analysts.

His departure is a shock contemplating how quickly he climbed the ranks and gained the belief of Benioff and the board. Two months in the past, Benioff and Taylor have been talking collectively on stage on the firm’s Dreamforce convention in San Francisco. The duo every donned rabbit ears, a reference to the rabbit mascot for the Genie service Salesforce was introducing on the time.

The announcement additionally calls into query Benioff’s means to work alongside somebody with an equal title. Nearly three years in the past, Keith Block, an ex-Oracle govt, left as co-CEO of the corporate. He’d held the position for simply 18 months after being promoted from working chief.

Benioff advised CNBC quickly after Block turned co-CEO that he favored the thought of getting somebody share the highest job so they might have a “divide and conquer technique” and so he might spend time investing, doing philanthropy and mentoring different enterprise leaders.

It has been a busy 12 months for Taylor.

He was chairman of Twitter heading into Elon Musk’s buy of the social media firm and performed a central position within the chaotic negotiations with Musk, who tried to terminate the $44 billion deal quickly after agreeing to it.

Taylor introduced publicly in July that Twitter would pursue authorized motion to implement the contract. The 2 sides have been scheduled to face off in court docket till Musk once more reversed course and mentioned he’d buy Twitter on the agreed-upon worth. Taylor hasn’t tweeted since Oct. 26. The acquisition closed the following day.

In an interview in September, Taylor mentioned the deal “would not come up lots” in Salesforce buyer conferences. He left the Twitter board after the deal closed. A month later, he introduced his departure from Salesforce.

“I’m grateful for six unbelievable years at Salesforce,” Taylor mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday. “Marc was my mentor nicely earlier than I joined Salesforce and the chance to accomplice with him to guide an important software program firm on this planet is career-defining. After plenty of reflection, I’ve determined to return to my entrepreneurial roots. Salesforce has by no means been extra related to prospects, and with its best-in-class administration group and the corporate executing on all cylinders, now could be the fitting time for me to step away.”

Earlier than Quip, Taylor bought FriendFeed to Fb and helped to create Google Maps.

Taylor made $22.8 million in whole compensation in fiscal 2022, largely from inventory awards, in line with the corporate’s newest proxy submitting. That is up from $13.9 million the prior 12 months. The median pay for a Salesforce worker prior to now 12 months was $181,612, the submitting mentioned.

As of Jan. 31, Taylor had roughly $80 million of unvested inventory models. Most of that was from restricted inventory he obtained when Salesforce bought Quip. These restricted shares “vest in equal quarterly installments by August 2023 topic to Mr. Taylor’s continued employment with the Firm,” the proxy submitting says.

Additionally on Wednesday, Salesforce disclosed better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter outcomes. However the firm’s inventory was down as a lot as 6% in after-hours buying and selling.

WATCH: Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff on Bret Taylor’s departure from the corporate