Salesforce

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Recent Articles about Salesforce
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photos via Getty.
Exclusive

Salesforce in Talks With Microsoft, Oracle and Google About Cloud Deal to Handle AI

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 20, 2025 7:31am PST
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long been a vocal critic of Microsoft. A couple of years ago, he accused the company of violating antitrust laws in how it sells software bundles. More recently, he has slammed its artificial intelligence chatbot for giving inaccurate responses and being difficult to use. But that history hasn’t stopped Salesforce... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long been a vocal critic of Microsoft. A couple of years ago, he...
Art by Mike Sullivan

Shopify’s ‘Trojan Horse’ to Beat Salesforce

By Ann Gehan · Feb 7, 2025 6:00am PST
Shopify, best known for selling software and services to help small entrepreneurs run online shops, wants to boost its growth by landing bigger retailers as clients. One obvious target is merchants that use e-commerce software from enterprise giants like Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle. While Shopify has highlighted its success in winning some... Shopify, best known for selling software and services to help small entrepreneurs run online...
Photo by Shutterstock
Applied AI

DeepSeek Will Pressure Microsoft, Salesforce to Drop AI Prices, Software Executives Say

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2025 10:00am PST
The falling cost of artificial intelligence—underscored by the arrival of DeepSeek—is likely to pressure software firms to stop charging customers for ChatGPT-like features such as summarizing documents and automatically drafting emails, which are fast becoming a commodity, executives from security firm Palo Alto Networks and file storage firm... The falling cost of artificial intelligence—underscored by the arrival of DeepSeek—is likely to...
Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison. Photo via Getty.
Why Oracle and Salesforce Should Merge
By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 22, 2025 7:30am PST · 4 comments
Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison. Photo via Getty.
True Value

Why Oracle and Salesforce Should Merge

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 22, 2025 7:30am PST · 4 comments
Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, is in the center of tech action more than at any time in the past 30 years, thanks to the company’s role in artificial intelligence and TikTok. But it’s not clear that Oracle has the resources to stay in the game. Even before Tuesday’s announcement by President... Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, is in the center of tech...
Ali Ghodsi. Art by Clark Miller. Screenshots via YouTube.
Exclusive

Databricks’ ‘Truth-Seeking’ CEO Wants to Be Bigger Than Salesforce

By Jon Victor · Dec 2, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment
New managers acclimating to life at data analytics software firm Databricks are often shocked when CEO Ali Ghodsi calls up one of their team members out of the blue to question them about a product they’re working on. Or drops into a low-level meeting unannounced. Or phones the data scientists working for a customer. For Ghodsi, it’s... New managers acclimating to life at data analytics software firm Databricks are often shocked...
Art via Clark Miller
Exclusive

Corporate Spending on OpenAI Threatens Salesforce, Other Enterprise Apps

By Aaron Holmes · Nov 4, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment
Artificial intelligence is supposed to transform the business world and boost the software industry that’s selling it. But as companies spend more money on chatbots and other conversational AI (see related chart), some say they plan to reduce spending on other types of software, such as expensive enterprise applications and non-AI cloud... Artificial intelligence is supposed to transform the business world and boost the software...
Evan Spiegel using Spectacles. Photo by Snap
AI Agenda

Snap Shows AI Wearables Are Far Off; Salesforce CEO Says Microsoft Sells ‘Science Projects’

By Erin Woo and Jon Victor · Sep 18, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Before we get to the main part of today’s column, we wanted to share a juicy tidbit about Nvidia’s $165 million offer to buy artificial intelligence software startup OctoAI, which Anissa broke Tuesday.Most OctoAI shareholders aren’t expected to get much of a payout, but merger documents show the startup’s senior management team would do quite... Before we get to the main part of today’s column, we wanted to share a juicy tidbit about Nvidia’...
Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski. Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty.
Can AI Really Replace Salesforce and Workday?
By Ann Gehan and Amir Efrati · Sep 12, 2024 7:15am PDT · 1 comment
Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski. Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty.
AI Agenda

Can AI Really Replace Salesforce and Workday?

By Ann Gehan and Amir Efrati · Sep 12, 2024 7:15am PDT · 1 comment
Before you get your hands on OpenAI’s Strawberry reasoning model—which we’re told is due out before the end of this week, including a version that will be in the free tier of ChatGPT—noodle on this:Can artificial intelligence kill the enterprise software app industry that’s led by companies such as Salesforce and Workday?That’s the... Before you get your hands on OpenAI’s Strawberry reasoning model—which we’re told is due out...
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff
Special Report: M&A

If Salesforce is a Buyer Again, the M&A Market Must Be (Almost) Back

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 17, 2024 12:00pm PDT · 2 comments
A year ago, the board of Salesforce, one of the most acquisitive companies in tech, disbanded its mergers and acquisitions committee as it faced pressure from activist shareholders to reduce spending. The economic backdrop had sent deal-hunters into hiding. Forecasters braced for a global recession. Investment bankers complained they had nothing... A year ago, the board of Salesforce, one of the most acquisitive companies in tech, disbanded its...