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Salesforce, Inc. is an American
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
-based software company headquartered in
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. It provides
customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a ra ...
(CRM) software and applications focused on
sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...
,
customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...
,
marketing automation Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitiv ...
,
analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...
, and application development. Founded by former
Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...
executive
Marc Benioff Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company. In September 2018, Benioff acquired ''Time (mag ...
, Salesforce quickly grew into one of the largest companies in the world, making its IPO in 2004. Salesforce's continued growth makes it into the first
cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...
company to reach US$1billion in annual revenue by fiscal year 2009, and the world's largest enterprise software firm by 2022. Today, Salesforce is one of the largest technology companies in the world, and as of September 19, 2022, is the 61st largest company in the world by market cap with a value of nearly US$153 billion. Salesforce ranked 136th on the most recent edition of the ''Fortune'' 500, making US$26.5billion in 2022. Since 2020, Salesforce has also been a component of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...
.


History

Salesforce was founded in 1999 by former
Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...
executive
Marc Benioff Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company. In September 2018, Benioff acquired ''Time (mag ...
, together with Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a
software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...
(SaaS) company. Two of Salesforce's earliest investors were
Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...
, the co-founder and first CEO of Oracle, and
Halsey Minor Halsey McLean Minor Sr. is an American businessman who is known for founding CNET in 1993, the first comprehensive consumer-facing technology content publisher. He is also the founder or co-founder of the technology companies such as the virtual ...
, the founder of
CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
. Salesforce was severely affected by the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
bursting at the beginning of the new millennium, with the company laying off 20% of its workforce. Despite its losses, Salesforce continued strong during the early 2000s. Salesforce also gained notability during this period for its tagline "the end of software", in which it also hired actors to hold up signs with its tagline outside a
Siebel Systems Siebel Systems, Inc. () was a software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications—notably Siebel CRM. The company was founded by Thomas Siebel and Pat ...
conference. Salesforce's revenue continued to increase from 2000 to 2003, with 2003's revenue skyrocketing from $5.4 million in fiscal year 2001 to over $100 million by December 2003. Also in 2003, Salesforce held its first annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. In June 2004, the company had its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
under the stock symbol CRM and raised US$110 million. In 2006, Salesforce launched IdeaExchange, a platform that allows customers to connect with company product managers. In 2009, Salesforce passed $1 billion in annual revenue. Also in 2009, the company launched Service Cloud, an application that helps companies manage service conversations about their products and services. In 2014, the company released Trailhead, a free online learning platform. In October 2014, Salesforce announced the development of its Customer Success Platform. In September 2016, Salesforce announced the launch of Einstein, an artificial intelligence platform that supports several of Salesforce's cloud services. In 2019, Salesforce joined the
Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...
, replacing energy giant and
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
-descendant
ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
. Salesforce's ascension to the Dow Jones was concurrent with that of
Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical Corporation, company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen was esta ...
and
Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
. Because the Dow Jones factors its components by market price, Salesforce was the largest technology component of the index at its accession. Across 2020 and 2021, Salesforce saw some notable leadership changes, In February 2020, co-chief executive officer Keith Block stepped down from his position in the company.
Marc Benioff Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company. In September 2018, Benioff acquired ''Time (mag ...
remained as chairman and chief executive officer. In February 2021, Amy Weaver, previously the chief legal officer, became CFO. Former CFO Mark Hawkins announced that he would be retiring in October. In November 2021,
Bret Taylor Bret Taylor (born July 10, 1980) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He is most notable for co-creating Google Maps and his tenures as the CTO of Facebook (now Meta Platforms), the chairman of Twitter, Inc.'s board of directors pr ...
was named vice chair and co-CEO of the company. On December 1, 2020, it was announced that Salesforce would acquire Slack for $27.7 billion, its largest acquisition to date. The acquisition closed on July 21, 2021. Journalists covering the acquisition emphasized the price Salesforce paid for Slack, which is a 54% premium compared to Slack's market value, as too high of a premium for the company, with views varying from the premium being too concerning for investors to Salesforce playing the long game. On August 24, 2022, Salesforce reported second quarter earnings of $7.72 billion. Upon the German software firm
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
reporting its earnings for the same quarter totaling to €7.52 Billion, Acceleration Economy reported that Salesforce had surpassed SAP to become the world's largest enterprise software vendor. This mirrored Benioff's remarks in Salesforce's earnings call, where he stated he looked at "this quarter very much as kind of a milestone". Salesforce announced a partnership with
Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc., (file no. 3835815) trade name, doing business as Meta and formerly named Facebook, Inc., and TheFacebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns Facebo ...
in September 2022. The deal called that Meta's consumer application
WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...
would integrate Salesforce's Customer 360 platform to allow consumers to directly communicate with companies. In November 2022, Salesforce announced it would terminate employees in its sales organization. ''
Protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technolog ...
'' reported that the company would likely eliminate some 2500 jobs. On November 30, 2022, Salesforce announced its co-CEO and vice chair, Bret Taylor, would be stepping down from his roles at the end of January 2023, with Benioff continuing to run the company and serve as board chair. Within the week, former
Tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled '' Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau vi ...
CEO Mark Nelson and former Slack CEO
Stewart Butterfield Daniel Stewart Butterfield (born Dharma Jeremy Butterfield; March 21, 1973) is a Canadian billionaire businessman, best known for co-founding the photo-sharing website Flickr and the team-messaging application Slack. Early life and education In ...
also announced their departures. Benioff, when asked about the departures, remained defiant and stated "people come and people go"; Salesforce's stock dropped to a 52-week low after Nelson's resignation.


Services

Salesforce's products include several
customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a ra ...
(CRM) technologies, including: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce Cloud and Platform. Additional technologies include Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau Analytics, and Trailhead.


Main services

Salesforce's main technologies are tools for customer management. Other products enable customers to create apps, integrate data from other systems, visualize data, and offer training courses.


Salesforce Platform

Salesforce Platform (formerly known as Force.com) is a
platform as a service Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computin ...
(PaaS) that allows developers to create add-on applications that integrate into the main Salesforce.com application. These third-party applications are hosted on Salesforce.com's infrastructure. Force.com applications are built using declarative tools, backed by Lightning and Apex, a proprietary
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
-like programming language for Force.com, as well as Visualforce, a framework including an XML syntax typically used to generate
HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
. The Force.com platform typically receives three complete releases a year. As the platform is provided as a service to its developers, every single development instance also receives all these updates. In 2015, a new framework for building user interfaces – Lightning Components – was introduced in beta. Lightning components are built using the open-source Aura Framework but with support for Apex as the server-side language instead of Aura's
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
dependency. This has been described as an alternative to, not necessarily a replacement for, Visualforce pages. As of 2014, the Force.com platform has 1.5 million registered developers. Lightning Base Components is the component library built on top of Lightning Web Components.


AppExchange

Launched in 2005, the Salesforce AppExchange is an online application marketplace that connects customers with third-party applications and consulting services. As of 2021, the exchange has over 5,000 apps listed.


Trailhead

Launched in 2014, Trailhead is a free online learning platform with courses focused on Salesforce technologies.


Salesforce+

In August 2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Salesforce launched a streaming service titled Salesforce+. The service features original content produced by the company involving its clients ranging from "days in the life" of smaller business owners to interviews with large companies' CEOs. Since 2022, Salesforce has also streamed its annual Dreamforce conference on Salesforce+.


Discontinued


Desk.com

Desk.com is a
SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...
help desk A help desk is a department or person that provides assistance and information usually for electronic or computer problems. In the mid-1990s, research by Iain Middleton of Robert Gordon University studied the value of an organization's help desks ...
and
customer support Customer support is a range of services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, troubleshooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product. Reg ...
product that was acquired by Salesforce for $50 million in 2011. The product focused on connecting small businesses to their customers. In March 2018, Salesforce announced that Desk.com would be consolidated with other services into Service Cloud Essentials.


Do.com

Do.com was a cloud-based
task management Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
system for small groups and businesses, introduced in 2011 and discontinued in 2014.


Operations

Salesforce is headquartered in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in the
Salesforce Tower Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based softwar ...
. Salesforce has international offices in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, and
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.
Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...
added Salesforce to the
S&P 500 Index The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...
in September 2008.


Culture

According to Marc Benioff, Salesforce corporate culture is based on the concept of
Ohana is a Hawaiian term meaning " family" (in an extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional). The term is cognate with Māori , meaning "nest". The root word refers to the root or corm of the , or taro plant (t ...
. In 2021, Cynthia Perry, a design research senior manager, resigned over discrimination in the workplace and posted her resignation letter on
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
. On September 10, 2021, Benioff tweeted that the company is prepared to help any employee who wishes to move out of the state of
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, following the abortion in Texas legislation announced on September 1, 2021.


Finances

For the fiscal year 2019, Salesforce reported revenue of US$13.28 billion, an increase of 26% year-over-year and 26% in constant currency. The CRM giant reported subscription and support revenues of US$12.41 billion, an increase of 27% year-over-year. Salesforce ranked 240 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States companies by revenue.


IT infrastructure

Salesforce migrated to
Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
servers with
Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufact ...
processors running Linux from Sun Fire E25K servers with SPARC processors running Solaris in 2008. In 2012, Salesforce announced plans to build a
data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
in the UK to handle European citizens' personal data. The center opened in 2014. In 2013, Salesforce and Oracle announced a nine-year partnership focusing on applications, platforms, and infrastructure. In 2016, Salesforce announced that it will use
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...
hosting for countries with restrictive data residency requirements and where no Salesforce data centers are operating.


Acquisitions

Salesforce has acquired many companies throughout its history.


2006–2015

In 2006, Salesforce acquired Sendia, a mobile web service firm, for $15 million and Kieden, an online advertising company. In 2007, Koral, a content management service, was acquired. In 2008, Salesforce acquired Instranet for $31.5 million. In 2010, Salesforce acquired multiple companies, including Jigsaw, a cloud-based data service provider, for $142 million,
Heroku Heroku is a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) supporting several programming languages. One of the first cloud platforms, Heroku has been in development since June 2007, when it supported only the Ruby programming language, but now supports Jav ...
, a Ruby application platform-as-a-service, for $212 million, and Activa Live Chat, a live chat software provider. In 2011, Salesforce acquired
Dimdim Dimdim was a software company that provided a web-based platform for realtime collaboration and meetings. Dimdim provided web conferencing service where users could share desktops, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk, and broadcast via webcam. ...
, a web conferencing platform, for $31 million, Radian6, a social media tracking company, for $340 million, and Rypple, a performance management software company. Rypple became known as Work.com in 2012. In 2012, Salesforce acquired Buddy Media, a social media marketer, for $689 million, and GoInstant, a browser collaboration startup, for $70 million. In 2013, Salesforce acquired ExactTarget, an email marketer, for $2.5 billion. In 2014, Salesforce acquired RelateIQ, a data company, for $390 million. In 2015, Salesforce acquired multiple companies for undisclosed sums, including Toopher, a mobile authentication company,
Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
, an AI calendar app, and MinHash, an AI platform. The company also acquired SteelBrick, a software company, for $360 million.


2016–present

In 2016, Salesforce spent over $5 billion in acquisitions. Companies acquired included
Demandware Demandware is a software technology company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts that provides a cloud-based unified e-commerce platform with mobile, AI personalization, order management capabilities, and related services for B2C and B2B re ...
, a cloud-based provider of e-commerce services, for $2.8 billion and Quip, a word processing app, for $750 million. In 2017, the company acquired Sequence, a user experience design agency, for an undisclosed amount. In 2018, Salesforce acquired several companies, including
MuleSoft MuleSoft, LLC. is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that provides integration software for connecting applications, data and devices. Started in 2006, the company's Anypoint Platform of integration products is designe ...
, a cloud service company, for $6.5 billion, as well as Rebel, an email services provider, and Datorama, an AI marketing platform, for undisclosed amounts. From 2019 to 2021 saw Salesforce make two of its largest acquisitions, with Salesforce completing its acquisition
Tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled '' Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau vi ...
, a data visualization and analytics software company, for $15.7 billion in 2019, and
Slack Technologies Slack Technologies, LLC is an American software company founded in 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia, known for its proprietary communication platform Slack. Outside its headquarters in San Francisco, California, Slack operates offices in D ...
, the developers of its namesake office messaging platform, for $27.7 billion in 2021. Salesforce also made smaller acquisitions throughout 2019, 2020, and 2021, which included ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion, consulting firm Acumen Solutions for $570 million, CRM firm Vlocity for $1.33 billion, privacy compliance startup Phennecs for $16.5 million, and robotic process automation firm Servicetrace for an undisclosed amount. Salesforce's most recent acquisition was Slack-bot maker Troops.ai, announced in May 2022 and expected to close in 2023.


Criticisms


Subject to a phishing attack

In November 2007 a
phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...
attack compromised contact information on a number of Salesforce customers. Some customers then received phishing emails that appeared to be invoices from Salesforce. Salesforce has stated that "a phisher tricked someone into disclosing a password, but this intrusion did not stem from a security flaw in he salesforce.comapplication or database."


‘Meatpistol’ presenters let go at Def Con

In 2017 at
DEF CON DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is a hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyer ...
, two security engineers were let go after giving a presentation on an internal project called MEATPISTOL. The presenters were sent a message 30 minutes prior to the presentation telling them not to go on stage, but the message wasn't seen until after they finished. The MEATPISTOL tool was anticipated to be released as open-source at the time of the presentation, but Salesforce didn't release the code to developers or the public during the conference. The terminated employees called on the company to open-source the software after being let go.


RAICES donation refusal

The
not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) rejected a US$250,000 donation from Salesforce because the company has contracts with
U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilit ...
.


2018 taxes

In December 2019, the ''
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank that works on state and federal tax policy issues. ITEP was founded in 1980, and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. ITEP describes its mission as ...
'' found that Salesforce was one of 91 companies who "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less" in 2018, as a result of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs A ...
. Their findings were published in a report based on the 379 ''Fortune'' 500 companies that declared a profit in 2018.


Lawsuit

In March 2019, Salesforce faced a lawsuit by 50 anonymous women claiming to be victims and survivors of
sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...
, abuse, and rape. The suit alleges that the company profited from and helped build technology that facilitated sex trafficking on Backpage.com, a now defunct website. In March 2021, a judge granted partial dismissal of the case, dismissing charges of negligence and conspiracy, but allowed the case to proceed regarding charges of sex trafficking.


Disability discrimination lawsuit in Japan

In July 2021, Salesforce Japan faced a discrimination lawsuit from a former employee, according to Japanese legal media, at a time when the firm has been publicly challenged about its commitment to equality. The firm declined to comment on the suit to the media. The ex-employee, who has
Autism Spectrum Disorder The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder, neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) ...
and
ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...
, claimed she was discriminated against because of her disability and terminated in the firm’s Japan web marketing team. The suit alleged that the anonymous woman, as an employee at Salesforce Japan from 2018 to 2020, faced
hate speech Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
,
microaggressions Microaggression is a term used for commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized group ...
and rejection of
reasonable accommodation A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, physic ...
from the manager. She alleged that her attempts to resolve the problem were met with pressure from HR and job coach. The lawsuit started on September 15 in Tokyo district court. The 8th trial will open on November 14, 2022.


Salesforce Ventures

In 2009, Salesforce began investing in startups. These investments became Salesforce Ventures, headed by John Somorjai In September 2014, SFV set up Salesforce1 Fund, aimed at start-ups creating applications primarily for mobile phones. In December 2018, Salesforce Ventures announced the launch of the Japan Trailblazer Fund, focused on Japanese startups. In August 2018, Salesforce Ventures reported investments totaling over $1 billion in 275 companies, including CloudCraze (e-commerce), Figure Eight (
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
),
Forter Forter is a software as a service (SaaS) company that provides fraud prevention technology for online retailers and marketplaces. It has offices in Tel Aviv, London, Singapore, and New York; its headquarters are in New York. History The company ...
(online fraud prevention), and FinancialForce (automation software). In 2019, SVF's five largest investments— Domo (data-visualization software),
SurveyMonkey Momentive Inc. (formerly SurveyMonkey Inc.) is an experience management company that offers cloud-based software in brand insights, market insights, product experience, employee experience, customer experience, online survey development, and a s ...
(online survey software),
Twilio Twilio () is an American company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions using it ...
(cloud-communication),
Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...
(cloud storage), and
DocuSign DocuSign, Inc. is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that allows organizations to manage electronic agreements. As part of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, DocuSign offers eSignature, a way to sign electronically on diff ...
(secure e-signature company)—accounted for nearly half of its portfolio. In 2021, Salesforce announced that its investments had resulted in $2.17 billion annual gain.


See also

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Salesforce Tower Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based softwar ...
* Salesforce Tower Indianapolis *
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a provider of digital marketing automation and analytics software and services. It was founded in 2000 under the name ExactTarget. The company filed for an IPO in 2007, but withdrew its filing two years later and rais ...
*
SalesforceIQ SalesforceIQ (formerly RelateIQ), a subsidiary of Salesforce.com, was an American software company based in Palo Alto, California. The company's software involved a relationship intelligence platform that combines data from email systems, smartph ...
* Slack


Notes


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{{Authority control, state=expanded 2004 initial public offerings Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Customer relationship management software companies Customer relationship management software Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Companies based in San Francisco Software companies established in 1999 Cloud applications Cloud computing providers 1999 establishments in California American companies established in 1999 Software companies of the United States