Salesforce has a problem on its hands, with a growing number of employees expressing their disapproval of the company’s ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
In the wake of multiple mass shootings, Salesforce employees are taking the company to task for having the NRA as a customer. According to Business Insider, some 4,000 employees have signed an open letter demanding the company sever ties.
“It’s not in our power to get background checks or other gun control measures passed by Congress — but we can effect change by ending our commercial relationship with our customer, the National Rifle Association,” the Salesforce employees wrote in their letter.
The employees are hoping to prevail on co-CEO Marc Benioff, who has expressed support for increased gun control in the past. The employees are concerned over the prospect of the NRA using the Salesforce platform for continued fundraising and marketing efforts.
“It is unconscionable to consider their use of Marketing Cloud to capitalize on mass shootings,” the letter continued.
It’s unclear if Salesforce’s leadership will follow through on the letter’s demands, but the situation illustrates the ethical challenges companies are increasingly facing as employee activism continues to grow.
On the heels of a “phenomenal quarter,” Salesforce is doubling down on its hybrid work model and “driving success from anywhere.”
Few companies have gone all in on remote and hybrid work as much as Salesforce. The company has been helping customers transition to the cloud, and has been rolling out tools aimed specifically at mobile workers. The company even purchased Slack, the poster-child of remote work, for a whopping $27.7 billion.
According to Steve Brashear, Salesforce SVP, Global Real Estate, the company is continuing its “Success from Anywhere” approach, giving employees “the flexibility to work how, when, and where works best for them.”
At the same time, despite being digital first, Brashear says the company is not digital only. In fact, the number one request from employees is to come in to the office for collaboration with teammates. In response, Salesforce has been reimagining its workspaces to make them more conducive to flexible work schedules and collaborative meetings.
“Individual desks will still have a role, but we’re prioritizing more breakout and collaboration spaces,” writes Brashear. “We’re increasing our social space from 40% to 60% — adding more booths, cafes, communal tables, focus pods, and mobile audiovisual equipment to enhance the connection, camaraderie, and innovation that comes from gathering in person.
“We are future-proofing our design with a flexible layout so we can adjust as we go.”
Salesforce has been firing on all cylinders in its embrace of remote and flexible work, and could serve as a template for other companies looking to do the same.
Microsoft is taking a page from rivals in a bid to expand its cloud business, targeting “holdout” businesses that have yet to migrate to the cloud.
Microsoft is currently in second-place in the cloud market, behind AWS and ahead of Google Cloud. The company is taking a more hands-on approach, according to The Information (by way of Seeking Alpha), investing $200 million to establish an acquisition team that will work to bring cloud holdouts onboard.
The strategy is similar that employed by Amazon, Salesforce, and Zoom. Microsoft evidently wants to proactively go after these holdout companies in an effort to sew up their business before the company’s rivals do.
Microsoft already has a major advantage over some other companies, thanks to its ecosystem of software and services that goes back decades. Emulating strategies that other successful companies have been using should help the Redmond giant even more, and may aid it in its efforts to close in on AWS.
Salesforce has reported its fourth-quarter results, beating analysts’ expectations on strong services.
Salesforce has been at the forefront of the workplace transformation, purchasing Slack and going all-in on remote and hybrid work. The company is also working to help companies transition to the cloud, forming partnerships, and rolling out new tools to help companies and their employees.
In its fourth quarter, the company reported $7.33 billion, up 26% year-over-year. Subscription and support revenue came in at $6.83 billion, up 25%, while professional services and other revenue increased 46%, coming in at $0.50 billion.
For fiscal year 2022, revenue was up 25%, coming in at $26.49 billion. Subscriptions and support accounted for $24.66 billion, an increase of 23%, while professional services and other revenue came in at $1.84 billion, a 44% increase.
“We had another phenomenal quarter and full-year of financial results,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and Co-CEO of Salesforce. “As we continue to see tremendous demand from customers, we’re raising our FY23 revenue guidance to $32.1 billion at the high-end of range, with non-GAAP operating margin of 20%, and operating cash flow growth of 22% year-over-year.”
“With our customers’ success driving our financial success, we’re generating disciplined, profitable growth at scale quarter after quarter,” said Bret Taylor, Co-CEO of Salesforce. “Our Customer 360 platform has never been more strategic or relevant in driving the growth and resilience of our customers around the world.”
Executives expressed confidence the company’s momentum will continue into 2023.
“Fiscal 2022 was a remarkable year for Salesforce. I am particularly pleased with our focus on discipline and profitable growth which drove record levels of revenue, margin, and cash flow,” said Amy Weaver, President and CFO. “I’m confident in the momentum of the business as we build an even stronger company in FY23 and beyond.”
Salesforce employees are pushing back against the company’s plan to create an NFT platform.
Salesforce announced in early February that it was working to develop its own NFT platform and NFT Cloud. Co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor told employees at an online event. NFTs have become increasingly popular, with some fetching millions of dollars.
It seems Salesforce employees are not impressed with the plans, with hundreds of them signing an open letter of protest, according to Thompson Reuters Foundation News. The employees took multiple issues with the company’s plans, including the environmental impact of NFTs and their being “unregulated, highly speculative financial assets.”
The environmental concerns are becoming a common refrain of critics of blockchain-based tech. Mozilla was forced to abandon plans to accept cryptocurrency donations over crypto’s environmental impact, and Wikipedia is under similar pressure.
It remains to be seen if Salesforce will abandon its plans, or merely alter them to address employee concerns.
Salesforce is getting in on the NFT bandwagon, telling employees it is developing its own NFT platform.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have taken the digital world by storm. Born out of the same blockchain that powers cryptocurrencies, NFTs are unique digital assets, such as digital art, that can be bought and sold. In fact, some NFTs have already fetched millions of dollars.
Salesforce clearly sees the potential of NFTs, with co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor telling employees about the company’s plans to develop its NFT platform, according to CNBC. CNBC’s sources asked not to be named, since the event where the announcement was made was a private one. Similarly, Salesforce has not made an official statement regarding its plans.
Nonetheless, as one of the leading cloud-based software providers, Salesforce embracing NFTs could help propel the tech even further into the mainstream.
Salesforce users will need to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) by February 1 if they want to maintain access to their Salesforce products.
MFA is an important element in modern cybersecurity, using multiple factors to secure accounts. The factors can be a combination of username, password, security key, app authenticator, etc.
In an effort to increase security, Salesforce is making MFA a mandatory option for all users, effective February 1.
Beginning February 1, 2022, Salesforce will require customers to use MFA in order to access Salesforce products. All internal users who log in to Salesforce products (including partner solutions) through the user interface must use MFA for every login. We encourage you to start planning for this change now, and where possible, begin implementing MFA.
Salesforce has published a support document to help companies prepare for the transition. All Salesforce users would do well to review it.
The communication and collaboration (C&C) market will be worth $309 billion by 2025, driven largely by hybrid work and AI.
The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a massive change in the workplace as companies the world over sent their employees home to work remotely. Despite multiple attempts to return to the office, many companies have ended up postponing a return indefinitely as new COVID variants have risen.
The shift to remote work has had a transformative impact on the C&C market, making platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and others indispensable tools.
According to GlobalData, that trend will continue, with communications platforms experiencing the highest growth rate, a CAGR of 15% between 2020 and 2025. Enterprise social networking and collaboration will grow at a CAGR of 14%.
“Competition is raging in the communications platforms segment, which is already the fastest growing part of the C&C market, with many companies — from big tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Cisco to cloud-native providers such as Zoom, RingCentral and Salesforce — all battling for dominance,” says Laura Petrone, Principal Analyst in Thematic Research at GlobalData.
“The pandemic has made competition in the C&C market even fiercer,” Petrone continues. “Today, as we shift to a hybrid model of working, vendors are rushing to provide the appropriate collaboration tools to enable staff to work from their chosen location. Those companies operating in the C&C market who are building their artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) capabilities will be the most successful, as such technologies will be critical in the emerging hybrid workplace.
“Augmented versions of collaboration tools, where people can display digital files and whiteboards inside the virtual space, are increasingly becoming commonplace. The likes of Meta and Microsoft are also championing the metaverse as the ideal environment to support hybrid working. However, the metaverse space will likely be exposed to potential data privacy violations, as it will involve processing a significant amount of personal data, including biometrics. Also, it remains to be seen whether office workers, many of whom are already struggling with Zoom fatigue, will find it appealing to interact with digital avatars in the corporate metaverse.”
Ford and Salesforce are partnering on VIIZR, a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool designed for small businesses.
VIIZR is designed for small businesses, especially those whose workers operate in the field. Electricians, HVAC personnel, plumbers, and the like are ideal candidates, with VIIZR designed to help with scheduling, invoicing, and more.
The tool is built on Salesforce Field Service, as well as Ford Pro, Ford’s commercial vehicle and service business. The two companies hope to take advantage of the field service management market, estimated to be worth $3 billion annually in the US alone. The market is projected to double in the next six years, potentially making the two companies’ collaboration a major payoff.
“For more than 100 years, Ford has been the backbone of commercial business,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said. “Salesforce is the global leader in CRM and together, Ford is excited to bring advanced digital tools to the trades to help drive the productivity of their business.”
“Small business owners are the foundation of our communities, and every day across America plumbers, electricians and landscapers step into their Ford vehicles to build our economy,” said Marc Benioff, chair and co-CEO of Salesforce. “We’re thrilled that our incredible new partnership with Ford will help energize millions of entrepreneurs in the trades with the power of Salesforce so they can deliver for their customers and take their businesses to the next level.”
Salesforce once again has co-CEOs, but that doesn’t mean longtime CEO Marc Benioff plans to retire anytime soon…or ever.
Salesforce is one of the few big tech companies to rely on co-CEOs, rather than a single person at the top spot. While Benioff has held the top position for years, the last co-CEO was Keith Block, who resigned in February 2020.
Bret Taylor was recently appointed to join Benioff as co-CEO, even being seen as Benioff’s heir-apparent. Despite the perception, Benioff has set the record straight that he has no intention of leaving the company he founded.
“I love Salesforce. You see me with our customers and how much fun I have with all of our stakeholders. I’m never leaving Salesforce. This is my life’s pursuit,” Benioff told Mad Money’s Jim Cramer.
“But I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a great partner here with Bret Taylor, and he’s just amazing,” Benioff continued. “This is my dream, that Bret would come in the company and we could work it and run it together and lead it together in a trusted partnership, and that’s happening.”
Salesforce has released a new report on workplace automation, showing it leads to substantially improved job satisfaction.
Workplace automation is often thought of in terms of efficiency and productivity. According to Salesforce, however, it has significant benefits to employee well-being.
The company’s research shows that 89% of employees using workplace automation were more satisfied with their jobs, while 84% were more satisfied with their company. Even more telling, 91% of full-time workers say automation helps them achieve a better work/life balance.
Cross-team collaboration also improved. Using low code automation tools led to 90% of IT users crediting automation with more satisfying collaboration across departments.
Salesforce says the research provides a roadmap for companies looking to help employees avoid burnout, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.
Now, as burnout becomes more prevalent in the second year of the pandemic, businesses are looking for ways to keep their employees happier. This new research suggests they may find those solutions in automation — flipping the script entirely on fears of the past.
“Slack has already transformed the way we work at Salesforce,” says Salesforce Co-CEO Bret Taylor. “Since we have deployed Slack internally, we sent 46% fewer e-mails. And in the last 30 days alone, our employees have sent nearly 60 million Slack messages and conducted 500,000 Slack Huddles. We run Salesforce on Slack.”
Not only has Salesforce transformed the way they work with Slack but so are the customers of Salesforce. The company sees Slack as a core platform for powering digital transformation.
“Customer 360 and Slack are powering this transformation for companies in every industry in every region of the world,” said Taylor in yesterday’s earnings call. “Slack outperformed our expectations in the first full quarter as a part of the Salesforce family. The number of customers on Slack who spent over $100,000 was up 44% year-over-year. The adoption of Slack Connect was up an astonishing 176% year-over-year. Slack is not just a product, Slack is a network, and it’s just incredible to see that growth.”
The company seemed pleasantly surprised about how transformative Slack is to the operations of large enterprises. As Slack brought on millions of new users during the pandemic they focused on innovation that has made Slack much more than a simple communications platform.
“Slack also continues to innovate at an unbelievable pace,” notes Taylor. “Slack Huddles, which is Slack’s new real-time audio capability, is already used weekly by over 1/3 of Slack users. And Slack Clips, the new asynchronous video capability, are being played nearly 1 million times a week. And this month at Slack Frontiers, which I hope all of you have watched; and if you haven’t, you can watch it online. Stewart and the team are now the next generation of Slack’s platform, and it’s going to truly transform the way companies think about workflows and automation.”
Customer 360 and Slack are powering this transformation for companies in every industry in every region of the world, according to Taylor.
Slack outperformed our expectations in the first full quarter as a part of the Salesforce family. The number of customers on Slack who spent over $100,000 was up 44% year-over-year. Adoption of Slack Connect was up an astonishing 176% year-over-year. Slack is not just a product, Slack is a network, and it’s just incredible to see that growth.
Slack also continues to innovate at an unbelievable pace. Slack Huddles, which is Slack’s new real-time audio capability, is already used weekly by over 1/3 of Slack users. And Slack Clips, the new asynchronous video capability, are being played nearly 1 million times a week. And this month at Slack Frontiers, which I hope all of you have watched; and if you haven’t, you can watch it online. Stewart and the team are now the next generation of Slack’s platform, and it’s going to truly transform the way companies think about workflows and automation.
“That is definitely what I saw firsthand,” said Co-CEO Mark Benioff. “I was like, how could it be that an airline is basically front-ending their entire system with Slack? That’s a shock to me.”
“Slack is the system of engagement for every workflow, every application, every person on your enterprise,” added Taylor. “It’s really an amazing platform vision. And absolutely watch Slack Frontiers. If you haven’t seen it, I think it will blow your mind.”
“Every CEO and every Board I talk to is focused on how they can succeed in this era of flexible work,” says Taylor. “According to Slack’s research, 93% of workers are looking for flexibility when they work, and 76% are looking for flexibility where they work. Companies need to connect their employees, their partners, their customers from anywhere because we all know we’re not going to be in the office 5 days a week.”
“Our offices aren’t going away,” he said. “It’s just that your digital headquarters is going to be more important because it’s truly the infrastructure that connects all of it, and especially in this new normal. And Slack and Customer 360 together are really powering this transformation.”
Slack Has Already Transformed Salesforce, Says Salesforce Co-CEO Bret Taylor
Salesforce has unveiled new Field Service tools in an effort to empower mobile workers.
Salesforce is establishing itself as a leader in the remote workforce market. The company recently acquired Slack and has made no secret of its goal to become the “digital HQ” for its customers.
In line with that goal, Salesforce has introduced four new Field Service features, aimed at helping businesses empower their remote and mobile workers.
The new features include Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization Engine, designed to help companies schedule and manage complex jobs, such as those requiring multiple steps. Lightning Web Components will allow Salesforce companies to customize their Salesforce Field Service app to meet their specific needs. Appointment Assistant Self-Service Scheduling empowers customers to create, manage, and cancel their own appointments. Visual Remote Assistant Two-Way Video allows agents and customers communicate via video chat.
“With customers and employees looking for fast and easy service, the field service industry is ripe for change,” said Paul Whitelam, GM of Field Service Management at Salesforce. “Salesforce is continuing to evolve our field service management platform to meet the needs of customers and field service employees in this all-digital world, and these latest innovations bring more trust, speed, and convenience to every field service interaction.”
Microsoft, Amazon and Google have announced “Trusted Cloud Principles,” an industry initiative aimed at protecting customer rights in the cloud.
With the rise of cloud computing, there are a number of issues that cloud companies and regulators are grappling with, not the least of which is privacy. Different jurisdictions have different privacy laws and requirements, making it a challenge for cloud companies to do business internationally.
The three largest cloud providers — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — have created a set of Trusted Cloud Principles designed to help govern how cloud companies should operate. The initiative also has the support of Atlassian, Cisco, IBM, Salesforce and Slack.
Through this initiative we seek to partner with governments around the world to resolve international conflicts of law that impede innovation, #security, and #privacy, and to establish and ensure basic protections for organizations that store and process data in the #cloud. Through this initiative, we commit to working with governments to ensure the free flow of data, to promote public safety, and to protect privacy and data security in the #cloud.
The initiative’s website clearly outlines the group’s mission statement:
Trusted Cloud Principles signatories are committed to protecting the rights of our customers. We have agreed to strong principles that ensure we compete while maintaining consistent human rights standards.
Slack is going all-in on remote work, wanting its executives to lead by example by limiting the amount of time they spend in the office.
Few companies have benefited from the global pandemic, and ensuing shift to remote work, as Slack. The company’s corporate messaging platform quickly became a staple of teams looking to stay connected and productive, despite the physical distance.
After Salesforce purchased Slack, the companies began to emphasize a “digital-first” approach. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently saidemployees “can do their job at home, they can be successful from anywhere,” and said Salesforce was helping customers achieve that.
In an effort to make sure its executives lead by example, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told CNN that executives are being encouraged to spend no more than three days a week in the office.
Executives will lead by example. There won’t be any dedicated executive floors in any of our offices, and executives will focus their office time on team events and customer interaction. Our guidance to leaders is to spend fewer than three days per week in the office.
Butterfield framed the policy as part of a goal to build a better workplace.
This is no time for retreat to the comfort of well-worn habits, or meager attempts to accommodate a restive workforce. This is a time for business leaders to build a better workplace and world.
Many companies have made remote and hybrid work a permanent policy, after the pandemic demonstrated that employees can be productive while working remotely. Few, however, have gone as far as Slack in encouraging the adoption of the new paradigm.
Butterfield acknowledged there would be challenges along the way, but expressed confidence it would pay off.
Embracing this digital-first shift won’t happen overnight. But if we’re flexible while we learn, experiment and evolve, we’ll make work simpler, more pleasant and more productive.
There appears to be a leadership shift in play at Salesforce, with COO Bret Taylor increasingly in demand among the company’s customers.
CEO Marc Benioff has been the face of the company since he founded it in 1999. According to Business Insider, however, customers are increasingly asking for COO Bret Taylor when discussing business.
The move is seen as an indication that Taylor is viewed as heir-apparent for the top job at Salesforce, once Benioff retires.
“I’ve seen a lot of cases where Bret is just becoming more and more in demand with the sales leaders, where they want him,” said Kevin Gibbs, the head of Salesforce Mobile, in a Business Insider interview arranged by Salesforce. “They want him to talk to the CEO, to talk to the leader of those companies, over all the other leaders inside the company over the past five years.”
Salesforce and FedEx are partnering to deliver an end-to-end e-commerce and shipping solution.
The partnership between the two companies will see the integration of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Order Management with features from FedEx and its e-commerce subsidiary, ShopRunner. The combination of platforms and services should help e-commerce shops manage the entire process, from promotion to purchase to shipping.
“Brands and merchants have to move quicker than ever to meet their customers’ expectations,” said Claude Russ, COO of FedEx Dataworks and CEO of ShopRunner. “With the combined power of Salesforce and FedEx, we will provide them the speed, control and economics they need to help them exceed those expectations. From optimizing their inventory management and fulfillment operations, to faster delivery and attracting new buyers, together we’re helping change the game so brands and merchants can have greater control over the links of their supply chain and increase their competitiveness.”
“We are in a world of commerce anytime and anywhere,” said Lidiane Jones, EVP & GM, Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “Commerce Cloud and Order Management let companies sell wherever their customers shop and fulfill on any channel. Pairing that with FedEx’s logistics capabilities lets us deliver an even faster, easier, and cost-efficient experience for our customers. Now, retailers can better meet shoppers’ two-day shipping expectations without accumulating extensive costs, or sacrificing their time or brand.”
The partnership is a multi-year agreement, with US customers set to see the first results of the partnership in Spring 2022.
A new report is demonstrating the breadth of the current digital transformation, claiming the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs and $1.6 trillion in revenue in the next five years.
Salesforce is the leading CRM provider in the world, and recently acquired Slack, one of the leading corporate messaging platforms. Salesforce has gone all-in on the hybrid/remote workplace, and aims to be the “digital HQ” for its customers. CEO Marc Benioff is a firm believer that employees “can be successful from anywhere,” and Salesforce is aggressively positioning itself as the company that can make that happen.
A new study by IDC, shows Salesforce is doing something right, as the company and its ecosystem partners “will create 9.3 million new jobs and $1.6 trillion in new business revenues worldwide by 2026.” Equally impressive, for every $1 Salesforce makes, its partner ecosystem will make $6.19.
The company attributed its “digital HQ” strategy as a key to IDC’s findings. IDC predicts that cloud-related tech will make up 27% of digital transformation IT spending in 2022, and grow to 37% in 2026. This trend is being driven by the remote work transition initially sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Salesforce is helping its customers make that transition smoother.
In fact, IDC found that Salesforce solutions had helped 47% of customer respondents expand their workforce to include more suburban and rural areas. In addition, 38% were able to expand their workforce into new demographics, such as stay-at-home parents who would otherwise not be able join the workforce, and 36% are able to support more flexible work environments.
“The Salesforce partner ecosystem extends the power of Salesforce to companies of all sizes, across industries and helps make customer success possible,” said Tyler Prince, EVP, Alliances & Channels, Salesforce. “As Salesforce grows, so do our partners — and we are committed to providing our expanding partner ecosystem with the tools needed to succeed in the jobs of the future.”
Salesforce has announced AI-driven improvements to Service Cloud, aimed at helping service agents and their customers.
Salesforce is the leading customer relationship management (CRM) vendor and a powerhouse in the SaaS industry. The company recently acquired Slack, and is a major proponent of a digital-first workflow moving forward. Salesforce is positioning itself as the provider of a “digital HQ,” bringing together the services and products companies need to thrive in the new hybrid workplace.
As part of that, the company is improving its Service Now platform, recognizing that top-notch service is one of the defining features of companies that have survived the pandemic.
“The businesses that have thrived over the last 18 months are those that embraced digital tools to deliver excellent customer and employee service experiences with trust and transparency,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Service Cloud, Salesforce. “With new AI and process automation for Service Cloud, as well as Slack to provide a digital hub to quickly resolve issues across teams and departments, we’re giving agents more time to focus on providing human-centric service and giving customers fast, proactive service to build trust and loyalty.”
To help companies better meet the needs of customers, Salesforce is introducing a number of new AI-driven workflows, including Customer Service Incident Management, Omni-Channel Flow and Robotic process automation capabilities (RPA) for Service Cloud.
The company is also introducing new and improved digital contact center capabilities. These include Einstein Conversation Mining, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) system to help prioritize customer interactions; persistent in-app and web messaging; virtual remote assistant; Workforce Engagement Intraday Management; and Service Cloud Voice for phone, digital channels and CRM data.
Marc Benioff: Employees ‘Can Be Successful From Anywhere’
Mad Money’s Jim Cramer interviewed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff about the surge in Delta cases and whether people would return to the office.
Benioff compared pandemic response in San Francisco and Geneva, saying it felt like A Tale of Two Cities. Whereas there are a number of restrictions in place in San Francisco, when he traveled to Geneva a day later there were no restrictions, with in-person meetings and far less concern over the COVID variant.
Nonetheless, Benioff expressed his belief the pandemic has fundamentally changed the new normal for the workforce.
“The phenomenon that I see happening globally, is not as many employees are coming back into their offices globally as any CEO expected,” Benioff said. “And you’re really starting to see some very low attendance numbers in offices because employees are so productive at home.
“So they can do their job at home, they can be successful from anywhere. The companies and our customers are successful. It’s incredible, but the way they’re being successful has completely changed.
“The pandemic is A Tale of Two Cities, but the new normal is not. We’re starting to see this new normal appear, and business is going to be quite different as we come into this new world.”
Zoom made headlines in July when it announced it was purchasing Five9, despite apparently having competition from Salesforce.
Five9 is a leading intelligent cloud contact center provider, making it natural fit for Zoom. Zoom’s roots were primarily in the enterprise before the pandemic made the company a household name and Five9 will help it bolster its services in that core market.
According to an SEC filing, Zoom was not alone in trying to acquire Five9, with another company also interested in a deal. While the filing doesn’t reveal who that company was, according to Business Insider, RBC analysts believe it was Salesforce.
Salesforce recently acquired Slack and has been very vocal in its goal of creating a “digital HQ” to help companies reinvent their productivity. Salesforce itself has been one of the most open in embracing hybrid and remote workflows, and clearly sees pandemic-fueled workplace changes as a long-term factor.
Given that Salesforce was not able to complete a deal with Five9, it will be interesting to see if the company tries to snap up one of its competitors.
