TWO’S COMPANY

Billionaire Salesforce Co-CEOs Waged Cold War Ahead of One’s Exit: WSJ

Marc Benoiff reportedly chafed at Bret Taylor’s choice to spend time rubbing elbows with other CEOs, believing it distracted from work on the company’s product.

Trouble simmered in Saleforce’s C-suite over the months leading up to the abrupt announcement last week that co-CEO Bret Taylor would be stepping down from his position, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. News of Taylor’s departure comes just over a year after he was elevated to the top job, with his co-chief executive officer, Marc Benioff, publicly calling the decision “bittersweet.” But behind the scenes, sources told the Journal, a cold war was brewing as the two men chafed at one another’s leadership styles. Benoiff, who also co-founded Salesforce, was particularly disgruntled with Taylor devoting what he perceived as too little time on the company’s product and engineering, instead focusing on his work as Twitter’s new chairman, as well as rubbing elbows with other CEOs. Sources close to the matter also said that attempts to paper over the cracks in the pair’s relationship, getting Taylor to stay on as co-CEO for another year, ultimately failed. Taylor’s departure was not entirely shocking to analysts, one of whom told Bloomberg News this week, “The co-CEO model is usually like watching a car crash in slow motion.”