Salesforce's co-CEO and heir apparent Bret Taylor shocked the industry when he resigned on Nov. 30 — one year after taking the job.
Insider's recent profile of Marc Benioff included new information about the circumstances of Taylor's departure.
Taylor made an "abrupt" play to become Salesforce's sole CEO, according to a former executive familiar with the matter. "It was a showdown," the person said, with Benioff saying that Taylor wasn't ready. Taylor announced his resignation on November 30.
In an interview, Benioff didn't directly address this version of events, saying "the past is the past." He did say that Taylor's departure came as a surprise.
"Nobody expected that, including me. It was a disappointment. That's all there is to it. And then based on that, we had to pivot," he said.
Salesforce did not respond when asked about the circumstances around Taylor's departure. Taylor did not respond to a request for comment.
Taylor joined Salesforce in 2016 after it acquired Quip, a productivity software startup founded by Taylor, for $750 million. He was appointed president and chief operating officer of Salesforce in 2019, and promoted co-CEO in November 2021.
At the time of Taylor's promotion, Salesforce's stock was at record levels and its annual revenue was projected to double to $50 billion in five years. But quickly the outlook for tech firms boosted by the pandemic began to shift.
In the year he held the co-CEO role, Benioff was exerting increasing control and activist investors including Starboard Value started circling, pushing for cost-cutting measures.
Taylor saw the writing on the wall, sources told Insider. Salesforce would have to cut costs significantly and lay off thousands of people, and it would be hard for the company to innovate for a while.
"You could feel and sense the frustration level of not being able to change the place," a former Salesforce executive said of Taylor's final months at the company. "And he was the top dog. If you can't feel like you're changing the place as the top dog, it's gotta be frustrating right?"
Salesforce's $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack in 2021 was steered largely by Taylor.
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