Salesforce layoffs come as customers tighten SaaS spend
Summary
The coming layoffs and office closures are the latest signs of trouble at Salesforce, which has seen a number of leadership changes, including the departure of co-CEO Bret Taylor depart in November and Slack CEO and Co-founder Stewart Butterfield. Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver had previously flagged the intense customer scrutiny over software spending, speaking last month during the companys most recent earnings call. "The vast majority of CRM buys have already converted to SaaS, and Salesforce has been for years a dominant choice in that market," said Liz Herbert, VP and principal analyst at Forrester. "In their core business areas theyre no longer the up-and-comer chasing SaaS conversion, displacing legacy tech: they are the established incumbents, and the market is saturated." In addition to staffing cuts, the company plans to reduce physical offices "within certain markets" and expects to incur up to $650 million in exit charges associated with the real estate reductions.