Salesforce
| File:Salesforce logo.svg Logo used since 2022 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cloud computing software |
| Founded | March 8, 1999 in San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Founder | Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, Frank Dominguez |
| Headquarters | San Francisco , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Marc Benioff (CEO), Amy Weaver (CFO), Bret Taylor (former co-CEO) |
| Products | Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Slack, Einstein AI, Trailhead, AppExchange |
Number of employees | 56,606 (2021) |
| Website | www |
Salesforce, Inc. is a U.S.-based company specializing in cloud computing software, with its headquarters situated in San Francisco, California. The firm provides solutions that cover areas such as sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and application development.
Established in March 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Salesforce experienced rapid growth and launched its initial public offering in 2004. As of September 2022, it held the position of the 61st largest company worldwide by market capitalization, valued at approximately US$153 billion. In 2022, Salesforce was recognized as the leading global enterprise applications provider. It secured the 491st spot on the 2023 Fortune 500 ranking with revenues totaling $31.352 billion. Since 2020, Salesforce has been included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
History
On March 8, 1999, Marc Benioff, a former Oracle executive, founded Salesforce together with Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a pioneer in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector. The company's initial prototype was introduced in November 1999. Early financial backing came from notable figures such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and CNET founder Halsey Minor.
Although affected by the dot-com crash—resulting in a workforce reduction of 20%—Salesforce continued to grow, with revenues climbing from $5.4 million in 2000 to $22.4 million in 2001. Its "the end of software" marketing campaign helped attract significant market attention by highlighting its cloud-based business approach.
In 2003, Salesforce organized its inaugural Dreamforce event, which drew 1,300 participants and featured 50 exhibitors. The company went public in June 2004 on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRM, raising $110 million through its IPO. By 2006, it had introduced Idea Exchange, a platform that allowed customers to engage directly with product managers.
By 2009, Salesforce had exceeded $1 billion in annual revenue and launched Service Cloud to enhance management of customer service operations. In 2014, it unveiled Trailhead, a complimentary online educational platform, alongside announcing the Customer Success Platform. The introduction of Einstein occurred in 2016—an artificial intelligence system embedded throughout its cloud offerings—which included securing exclusive rights to use Albert Einstein’s image for $20 million.
The company broadened its focus to sustainability with the introduction of Sustainability Cloud (also known as Net Zero Cloud), designed to assist clients in monitoring their net-zero emissions objectives. In 2020, Salesforce became part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as its largest technology constituent.
Between 2020 and 2021, leadership shifts took place: co-CEO Keith Block departed early in 2020; Amy Weaver assumed the role of CFO in 2021; and Bret Taylor joined as vice chair and co-CEO later that year.
In December 2020, Salesforce revealed its most significant acquisition to date—the purchase of Slack Technologies for $27.7 billion—which concluded in July 2021 at a premium well above Slack’s market valuation. In April 2022, the company officially changed its name to "Salesforce, Inc."
By August 2022, Salesforce overtook SAP to become the largest enterprise software vendor worldwide. The subsequent month saw a collaboration with Meta Platforms to integrate WhatsApp into Salesforce's Customer 360 platform for improved customer engagement.
Amid market challenges, Salesforce eliminated hundreds of sales positions in November 2022 and experienced notable executive exits including co-CEO Bret Taylor, Tableau CEO Mark Nelson, and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield; however, CEO Marc Benioff continued leading the company.
In January 2023, Salesforce announced a significant restructuring involving a workforce reduction of approximately 10%—around 8,000 roles—citing factors such as overexpansion during the pandemic and changes brought by remote work; office footprint was also scaled down. Around this time, activist investor Elliott Management disclosed acquiring a substantial stake in Salesforce.
Continuing cost-cutting measures into January 2024 led to an additional reduction of roughly 700 employees globally (about 1%), reflecting ongoing efforts to optimize expenses amid widespread layoffs across the technology sector.
Services
Salesforce delivers a comprehensive suite of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and the Salesforce Platform. Its offerings also feature Slack to facilitate improved team collaboration.
The company’s services extend to application development, data integration and visualization tools, along with training programs. In September 2024, Salesforce unveiled Salesforce Foundations, a package combining essential features from Sales Cloud and Service Cloud aimed at optimizing departmental operations.
Artificial intelligence
The company introduced its inaugural AI product, Einstein, at Dreamforce 2016, embedding artificial intelligence into its platform. By March 2023, Salesforce broadened its AI capabilities by integrating ChatGPT within Slack and launching Einstein GPT, a generative AI service designed to enhance various business workflows.
In 2024, the release of Einstein Copilot: Health Actions provided healthcare professionals with tools for appointment scheduling and patient management. Later that year, the Einstein Service Agent was introduced to automate customer service functions such as processing returns and refunds.
September 2024 also saw the debut of Agentforce, Salesforce’s advanced agentic AI platform that empowers users to develop autonomous agents for tasks including customer support, marketing initiatives, and sales training—further solidifying Salesforce’s leadership in AI-powered CRM solutions.
Salesforce Platform
Previously known as Force.com, the Salesforce Platform is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to create applications integrated with Salesforce's core offerings. These apps operate on Salesforce’s infrastructure and are coded using Apex, a proprietary Java-like programming language developed by James Spagnola. Initially reliant on the "Visualforce" framework for generating HTML content, the platform evolved in 2015 to incorporate the "Lightning Components" framework, which improved user interface development. By 2014, over 1.5 million developers had registered on the platform, underscoring its substantial market impact and contribution to Salesforce’s expansion.
AppExchange
Introduced in 2005, AppExchange serves as an online marketplace for third-party apps and consulting services, playing a vital role in Salesforce’s ecosystem and commercial strategy. By 2021, it featured more than 5,000 applications, offering clients broad customization possibilities for extending Salesforce products. AppExchange supports Salesforce’s competitive positioning by nurturing a dynamic partner community and generating revenue through app sales and professional services.
Trailhead
Launched in 2014, Trailhead is a complimentary online education platform providing courses centered on Salesforce technologies, aiding both customer and employee skill development worldwide.
Discontinued
Desk.com was a cloud-based help desk and customer support solution acquired in 2011 for $50 million; it was merged into Service Cloud Essentials in 2018 to consolidate Salesforce’s offerings for small and medium-sized businesses. Do.com, a cloud task management tool designed for small teams introduced in 2011, was phased out in 2014 as part of Salesforce’s product portfolio streamlining efforts.
Operations
Salesforce's main headquarters are located in the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, with a global presence spanning 110 offices. Notable international branches include those in Hong Kong, Israel, London, Paris, Sydney, and Tokyo.
The company gained entry into the S&P 500 Index in 2008 and was subsequently added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in August 2020, taking the place of ExxonMobil. This transition reflects Salesforce's expanding influence in the market and its robust financial achievements.
Culture
The corporate ethos at Salesforce, heavily influenced by founder and CEO Marc Benioff, centers around the principle of Ohana, which promotes a familial atmosphere within the organization. Nevertheless, challenges persist; in 2021, Cynthia Perry, a senior design research manager, resigned due to allegations of workplace discrimination, underscoring ongoing diversity and inclusion issues. In response to Texas's restrictive abortion laws enacted in 2021, Salesforce offered support for employees seeking relocation, demonstrating its dedication to workforce well-being and social responsibility.
Finances
Salesforce reported revenues of US$26.49 billion for fiscal year 2022, representing a 25% increase compared to the previous year and highlighting significant business expansion. The company secured the 126th position on the 2022 Fortune 500 ranking based on revenue, illustrating its strong standing within the technology sector.
| Year | Revenue US$ millions |
Net income US$ millions |
Total Assets US$ millions |
Price per Share US$ |
Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 176 | 7 | 280 | 5.19 | 767 |
| 2006 | 310 | 28 | 435 | 8.62 | 1,304 |
| 2007 | 497 | 0 | 665 | 11.69 | 2,070 |
| 2008 | 749 | 18 | 1,090 | 13.43 | 2,606 |
| 2009 | 1,077 | 43 | 1,480 | 11.37 | 3,566 |
| 2010 | 1,306 | 81 | 2,460 | 24.21 | 3,969 |
| 2011 | 1,657 | 64 | 3,091 | 32.93 | 5,306 |
| 2012 | 2,267 | −12 | 4,164 | 35.73 | 7,785 |
| 2013 | 3,050 | −270 | 5,529 | 45.94 | 9,800 |
| 2014 | 4,071 | ||||
| 9,153 | 57.26 | 13,300 | |||
| 2015 | 5,374 | ||||
| 10,665 | 70.66 | 16,000 | |||
| 2016 | 6,667 | ||||
| 12,763 | 74.55 | 19,000 | |||
| 2017 | 8,392 | 180 | 17,585 | 90.26 | 25,000 |
| 2018 | 10,480 | 127 | 21,010 | 132.21 | 29,000 |
| 2019 | 13,282 | 1,110 | 30,737 | 155.10 | 35,000 |
| 2020 | 17,098 | 126 | 55,126 | 222.40 | 49,000 |
| 2021 | 21,252 | 4,072 | 66,301 | 255.33 | 56,606 |
| 2022 | 26,492 | 1,444 | 95,209 | 132.59 | 73,541 |
| 2023 | 31,352 | 208 | 98,849 | 79,390 | |
| 2024 | 34,857 | 4,136 | 99,823 | 72,682 | |
| 2025 | 37,895 | 6,197 | 102,928 | 76,453 |
IT infrastructure
In a significant shift during 2008 Salesforce moved from utilizing Sun Fire E25K servers powered by SPARC processors running Solaris to Dell servers equipped with AMD processors operating on Linux. The company revealed plans in 2012 to establish a data center in the UK dedicated to handling European personal data; this facility became operational in 2014. A strategic nine-year collaboration with Oracle was initiated in 2013 focusing on applications development as well as platform and infrastructure enhancement. By the year 2016 Salesforce began leveraging Amazon Web Services for hosting in countries with strict data residency regulations or where it lacked its own data centers.
2006–2015
From 2006 through 2015, Salesforce embarked on a deliberate acquisition strategy aimed at broadening its range of products and services. Notable purchases during this period included Sendia, specializing in mobile web services, and Kieden, focused on online advertising, both acquired in 2006; followed by Koral, a content management company, in 2007; and Instranet, acquired for $31.5 million in 2008.
In 2010, Salesforce expanded its cloud data capabilities by acquiring Jigsaw for $142 million, along with Heroku, a Ruby-based platform-as-a-service provider, for $212 million, and Activa Live Chat. The subsequent year saw further acquisitions: Dimdim, a web conferencing platform, was purchased for $31 million; Radian6, a social media monitoring tool, was acquired for $340 million; and Rypple, a performance management firm later renamed Work.com.
Salesforce’s growth continued in 2012 with the acquisitions of Buddy Media, a social media marketing company bought for $689 million, and GoInstant, which provided browser collaboration technology, for $70 million. In 2013, the company made a significant investment by acquiring ExactTarget, an email marketing firm, for $2.5 billion. The following year included the purchase of RelateIQ, a data analytics enterprise, for $390 million.
The year 2015 saw Salesforce acquiring multiple companies such as Toopher (mobile authentication), Tempo (an AI-driven calendar application), MinHash (an AI platform), and SteelBrick (quote-to-cash software) for $360 million collectively. These acquisitions strengthened Salesforce’s position by advancing its AI technologies and expanding its marketing and sales automation solutions.
2016–present
Beginning in 2016, Salesforce accelerated its acquisition efforts to diversify its offerings and increase market share. Among the most significant deals were Demandware, a cloud e-commerce provider acquired for $2.8 billion, and Quip, a collaborative document editing application purchased for $750 million. In 2017, the company added Sequence, a user experience design agency.
In 2018, Salesforce made major strides in enhancing its cloud services with the acquisition of MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. That year also included purchases of Rebel (email service provider) and Datorama (an AI-driven marketing platform). The momentum continued with the acquisition of Tableau Software in 2019 for $15.7 billion and Slack Technologies in 2021 for $27.7 billion—moves that solidified Salesforce’s leadership in analytics and enterprise communication.
Between 2019 and 2021, Salesforce further expanded by acquiring ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion; consulting firm Acumen Solutions at $570 million; CRM specialist Vlocity for $1.33 billion; privacy-focused startup Phennecs at $16.5 million; and robotic process automation company Servicetrace. These purchases reflect Salesforce’s ongoing commitment to broadening its service portfolio and reinforcing competitive strengths.
In July 2022, Salesforce enhanced its collaboration toolset by acquiring Troops.ai, known for its Slack-bot technology. This was followed in September 2023 by the acquisition of Airkit.ai to advance AI-powered customer service capabilities and later that year by Spiff, an automated commission management platform.
Continuing its expansion into 2024, Salesforce acquired Own—a data management firm—for $1.9 billion; enterprise management platform Zoomin; as well as PredictSpring and Tenyx—moves that further bolstered its data handling and customer experience solutions.
Looking ahead to 2025, Salesforce announced plans to purchase Informatica for around $8 billion to enhance its AI-driven data tools portfolio. This strategic acquisition highlights the company’s ongoing dedication to strengthening its data management and analytics offerings following earlier negotiations.
This acquisition-focused growth strategy illustrates Salesforce’s business model centered on diversifying product lines, expanding global reach through subsidiaries, and sustaining industry leadership via persistent innovation and investment.
Phishing Incident
In November 2007, a phishing scheme resulted in unauthorized access to contact details of multiple Salesforce clients, which was subsequently exploited to send fraudulent invoice emails. Salesforce emphasized that the incident stemmed from a compromised password rather than any vulnerability within their software or database systems.
Dismissal of ‘Meatpistol’ Presenters at DEF CON
In 2017, Salesforce dismissed two senior security engineers after they showcased an internal initiative named MEATPISTOL at DEF CON, despite explicit instructions to refrain from doing so. Although the tool was intended for open-source release, Salesforce withheld the source code, leading the terminated employees to publicly campaign for its publication.
RAICES Donation Rejection
The nonprofit organization Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) refused a $250,000 donation from Salesforce, citing objections to the company’s contractual relationships with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Federal Taxes in 2018
According to a December 2019 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Salesforce was among 91 corporations that effectively paid zero or negative federal tax rates in 2018, a consequence attributed to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in 2017. This study analyzed 379 Fortune 500 companies reporting profits for that year.
Sex Trafficking Litigation
In March 2019, Salesforce was sued by fifty anonymous women who claimed the company profited from technology that enabled sex trafficking activities on the now-defunct Backpage.com platform. By March 2021, a judge dismissed allegations of negligence and conspiracy but permitted sex trafficking claims to continue. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice in March 2024, and in September 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to overturn this dismissal.
Disability Discrimination Case in Japan
Salesforce Japan faced a lawsuit in July 2021 filed by a former employee diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD, alleging discrimination based on disability and wrongful termination. The plaintiff reported experiencing hate speech, subtle discriminatory behaviors, and denial of reasonable workplace accommodations by management between 2018 and 2020. The legal proceedings are ongoing in Tokyo district court.
From 2009 through 2021 (except for 2017), Salesforce Japan consistently failed to meet Japan’s mandated disability employment quota of 2.3%, and notably did not disclose disabled employee figures in 2020. Depending on the lawsuit’s resolution, the company may face regulatory sanctions or suffer reputational harm impacting its disability hiring policies.
Workforce Reductions and Executive Pay
In January 2023, Salesforce announced workforce reductions affecting approximately 8,000 employees due to excess hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic combined with a global economic slowdown. In March of the same year, it was disclosed that actor Matthew McConaughey received $10 million annually as a “creative advisor and television spokesperson,” while musician will.i.am was also compensated for his technology consulting contributions.
Wrongful Termination Allegations
In September 2024, former Senior Director Dina Zelikson initiated a wrongful termination lawsuit against Salesforce in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging discrimination and retaliation linked to her medical leave.
Salesforce Ventures
Established in 2009, Salesforce Ventures operates as the strategic investment division of the company and is headed by John Somorjai. Its primary focus is on funding startups that complement Salesforce’s ecosystem and business strategy. In 2014, the Salesforce1 Fund was introduced with a $100 million commitment aimed at mobile application startups, followed by the creation of the Japan Trailblazer Fund in 2018 to back emerging Japanese enterprises.
By August 2018, Salesforce Ventures had allocated more than $1 billion into 275 companies, including notable investments such as CloudCraze in e-commerce, Figure Eight in artificial intelligence, Forter specializing in fraud prevention, and FinancialForce offering automation software. The five largest investments in 2019—Domo, SurveyMonkey, Twilio, Dropbox, and DocuSign—accounted for close to fifty percent of the total portfolio valuation. These holdings collectively produced $2.17 billion in annual returns by 2021.
In the years 2023 and 2024, Salesforce significantly increased its Generative AI Fund from an initial $250 million to $1 billion to drive accelerated development within AI-focused startups. Overall, Salesforce Ventures has invested a total of $5 billion across businesses in 27 countries, strengthening its global footprint and market presence.