Salesforce promotes Bret Taylor to Co-CEO, alongside Marc Benioff | ZDNet

Salesforce on Tuesday announced that Bret Taylor will serve as Co-CEO alongside Salesforce’s co-founder and current CEO Marc Benioff, effective immediately. Taylor, who has served as president and COO since 2019, has also been promoted to vice chairman of the Board. 

“Bret is a phenomenal industry leader who has been instrumental in creating incredible success for our customers and driving innovation throughout our company. He has been my trusted friend for years, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome him as Co-CEO,” Benioff says in the announcement. “We’re in a new world and Salesforce has never been more relevant or strategic for our customers. Together, Bret and I will lead Salesforce through our next chapter, while living our shared values of trust, customer success, innovation and equality for all.”

The CRM giant on Tuesday also published better-than-expected third quarter financial results, with a strong showing from the company’s Customer 360 platform and Slack. 

Benioff says in a statement that the company is on track to reach $50 billion revenue in FY26.

Salesforce’s non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.27. Third quarter revenue was $6.86 billion, up 27% year-over-year.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 92 cents per share on revenue of $6.8 billion. 

Subscription and support revenues for the quarter were $6.38 billion, an increase of 25% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenues for the quarter were $0.48 billion, an increase of 45% year-over-year.

Breaking down subscription and support revenues, the strongest category was “platform and other,” growing 51% year-over-year to $1.3 billion. That category includes Platform 360 and Slack. 

Sales grew 17% to $1.5 billion, while Service grew 20% to $1.7 billion. Marketing & Commerce grew 25% to $1 billion in revenue for the quarter. Data, which includes MuleSoft and Tableau, grew 20% to $900 million.

Salesforce gave a Q4 revenue outlook of  $7.224 billion to $7.234 billion. It raised its FY22 guidance to $26.39 billion to $26.4 billion.

Salesforce also announced two new appointments to the Salesforce Board of Directors: Williams-Sonoma President and CEO Laura Alber and former United Airlines Chairman and CEO Oscar Munoz.