Salesforce to Lay Off 10% of Workforce, Reduce Offices

In a letter to employees, Salesforce Co-Chief Executive

Marc Benioff

said that the cuts come as many of the company’s customers are taking a more cautious approach to spending, a trend that a growing number of software companies said they have been facing lately.

“The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” Mr. Benioff said in the letter.

Mr. Benioff, who also serves as chairman of the company, said the business-software provider hired too many people as revenue surged earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic. “I take responsibility for that,” he said.

Most of the layoffs will occur over the coming weeks, Mr. Benioff said.

Salesforce hired aggressively in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, as companies turned to Salesforce’s software offerings to keep operations humming despite remote workforces. Salesforce also during the pandemic bought workplace-messaging app Slack Technologies.

Salesforce had nearly 80,000 global employees as of Oct. 31, up from more than 49,000 employees as of Jan. 31, 2020, according to company filings.

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In recent months, Salesforce has been hit by several executive departures, including co-CEO

Bret Taylor

and

Stewart Butterfield,

the chief executive and co-founder of Slack Technologies.

Tensions had been growing between Mr. Taylor, who is leaving just over a year after he was elevated to co-CEO, and Mr. Benioff in the months leading up to the company’s announcement that Mr. Taylor would depart, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The company said it expects to be mostly done with the employee restructuring plan by the end of fiscal 2024, and to finish its real-estate restructuring in fiscal 2026.

Shares of Salesforce have fallen almost 46% over the past 12 months.

Write to Will Feuer at [email protected]