Salesforce appoints new board directors amid activist investor pressure

Salesforce on Friday named three new board directors, including the chief of hedge fund ValueAct Capital, amid pressure from activist investors for better cost control and a management shake-up at the cloud-based software firm.

The company appointed chief executive of hedge fund ValueAct Capital Mason Morfit, Mastercard finance chief Sachin Mehra and former chief executive of Carnival Corp Arnold Donald to its board.

It was reported on Thursday that Elliott Management, the activist investment firm that recently made a multimillion-dollar investment in Salesforce, plans to nominate several director candidates.

At Salesforce, there are at least four activist investors including Elliott, Starboard Value, Jeff Ubben's Inclusive Capital and ValueAct, the firm Ubben founded and which is now run by Mason Morfit, sources familiar with the matter had said.

Earlier this year, the company had announced plans to cut 10% of its jobs and close some offices after rapid pandemic hiring left it with a bloated workforce.

The company also said Sanford Robertson and Alan Hassenfeld, directors at Salesforce since 2003, will not stand for re-election. – Reuters

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