Activist Hedge Fund Elliott Management Targets Salesforce

Activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has acquired a multi-billion dollar holding in cloud-based software firm Salesforce Inc., according to The Wall Street Journal.

Elliott has yet to reveal its strategy for increasing value at the company, according to the report.

Elliot is the second activist investor to take a stake in Salesforce in the last three months after Starboard Value revealed an undisclosed holding in the company in October of 2022.

“Salesforce is one of the preeminent software companies in the world, and having followed them nearly two decades, we have developed a deep respect for (Co-CEO) Marc Benioff and what he has built,” Jesse Cohn, managing partner at Elliott, said on Twitter.

The news follows Salesforce’ recent announcement of a restructuring plan that aims to cut operating costs and improve operating margins. The plan sees the company cutting jobs by approximately 10%, or roughly 8,000 employees, while also reducing office space in certain markets.

Cohn has experience working with technology companies having previously served on the boards of both Twitter and eBay, while Elliot has made many tech-focused investments and recently saw portfolio manager Marc Steinberg join the board of Pinterest Inc as a director.

Shares in Salesforce, which was valued at more than $300bn in November of 2021, and now valued at $151.3 billion, have climbed 12% this year, but are still down 32% over the past 12 months.