Latest news with #Benioff
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce flags rising AI revenue, more Agentforce deals
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. Salesforce executives touted customer and revenue wins during a Wednesday earnings call. The company saw revenue increase 8% year over year, to $9.8 billion, according to the announcement. Data cloud and AI annual recurring revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark during the quarter, up 120% year over year. The company reported 4,000 paid Agentforce users, up from 3,000 during the prior quarter. 'We are now very well positioned to take advantage of this multitrillion-dollar opportunity in AI, enterprise software and digital labor,' said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, pointing to the company's increased revenue guidance for the 2026 fiscal year to $41.3 billion, up more than $400 million from the previous forecast. Salesforce is betting on agentic AI adoption to further extend its enterprise presence. The Agentforce platform, introduced last year, lets customers access a library of pre-built agents and create their own customized offerings. 'We're learning a lot about how to make agents successful, productive, how to scale, how to tune our own organization, and really get our customers all ready for this AI transformation in the enterprise led by agents,' Benioff said Wednesday. Earlier this week, Salesforce announced it will acquire cloud data management company Informatica for $8 billion, with plans to bolster its cloud-based data and AI capabilities. The deal will let Salesforce integrate Informatica's governance and data management services across several products, including Data Cloud. 'This is a moment where Informatica is more important to our customers than ever before,' Benioff said, in reference to enterprises' need to enhance their own data capabilities in order to deploy AI. Data governance woes represent a top challenge for enterprise agentic AI ambitions. Data privacy and security features were among the key changes IT executives leaders wanted to see from available agentic AI offerings, according to an April report published by Cloudera. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Salesforce sellers think CEO Marc Benioff is out of ideas. Cramer says it might be time to buy
It might be time to take another look at Salesforce . Jim Cramer said Thursday he's considering whether to rebuild the Club's small position in the enterprise software giant, following an exaggerated 5% sell-off in the stock despite strong earnings and guidance. "The long knives are out" for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on the notion that he's tapped out of ideas, Jim said during Thursday's Morning Meeting. "I totally disagree with that," Jim added, suggesting a possible opportunity in the stock, which has lost more than 20% year to date compared to the S & P 500 's flat 2025 performance. In a note to clients Thursday, RBC Capital analysts said they're concerned that Salesforce is reverting to its old habit of relying on acquisitions versus organic innovation, questioning the necessity of this week's $8 billion offer to buy data management firm Informatica. Meant to accelerate Salesforce's push into artificial intelligence, the integration of Informatica could become a distraction from the company's core customer relationship management (CRM) platform, the analysts added. For those reasons, RBC downgraded Salesforce to a hold-equivalent rating. While also lowering its price target from $420 to $275 per share, it still represents more than 5% upside to where the Club stock traded Thursday afternoon, around $261. CRM YTD mountain Salesforce YTD Salesforce has struggled to get the Street on board with its grand vision of Agentforce — its answer to AI agents that can automate lots of human-like tasks. Last month, D.A. Davidson accused Salesforce of neglecting its core business to bet on AI. In an April interview with Jim on "Mad Money," Benioff defended his strategy: "We have pivoted our company hard and fast to completely absorb Agentforce into all of our products." Following Wednesday evening's earnings , which saw Salesforce deliver a better-than-expected quarter and strong guidance, Benioff told Jim that Agentforce is now a $100 million-plus annual recurring revenue (ARR) product. Additionally, he said nearly 60% of the company's largest 100 deals in the quarter included both Agentforce and Data Cloud, which together account for ARR of more than $1 billion — up from the $900 million provided in February. "Wall Street has decided that Marc Benioff, once again should be counted out," said Jim, especially as Benioff prefers acquisitions over share buybacks. "What he wants to do is become the single greatest place to be able to get agentics, in other words, take advantage of what [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang's doing," Jim continued. Nvidia and Salesforce announced a collaboration last year aimed at developing advanced agentic AI innovation. Since its launch, Agentforce has secured 8,000 deals, with major named customers such as PepsiCo . "Now, they're using 11 of clouds, and now led by Agentforce and our data cloud to really transform Pepsi," Benioff also told Jim in Wednesday's "Mad Money" interview. Agentforce has allowed the soft drink and snack chain to unify its businesses under a single customer information system, Benioff said. He added that every company on the Salesforce platform can do so with artificial intelligence. But not everybody on Wall Street has turned its back on Salesforce. Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $385 from $340. The analysts said they view the software enterprise's scaling capacity to pursue data and artificial intelligence opportunities as "strategically sound." KeyBanc also backed Salesforce, reiterating a buy-equivalent rating and price target of $440, stating satisfaction with the company's quarter growth metrics and upside opportunity. Jim said KeyBanc gets it. Bottom line The Club is still confident in Salesforce and its long-term trajectory. "The stock's sell-off on Thursday is surprising given the stock's underperformance this year and low expectations into the print," said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis for the Club. "Although the quarter wasn't enough to silence its critics, we don't think CRM is getting enough credit for its AI ambitions," Jeff said, agreeing with the sentiment conveyed by Goldman and KeyBanc. Following earnings, we reiterated our buy-equivalent 1 rating , while lowering our price target to $350 a share from $400 to account for the skepticism in the marketplace. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRM, NVDA See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Techday NZ
5 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
Salesforce to acquire Informatica for equity value of USD $8 billion
Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Informatica for an equity value of approximately USD $8 billion, net of Salesforce's current investment in Informatica. Under the terms of the agreement, holders of Informatica's Class A and Class B-1 common stock will receive USD $25 in cash per share. The transaction has received approval from the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close early in Salesforce's fiscal year 2027, pending regulatory clearances and customary closing conditions. Stockholders possessing around 63% of Informatica's voting power have already provided written consent for the deal, which means no further stockholder approval is necessary. Salesforce will fund the acquisition with a combination of existing cash and new debt. The planned acquisition is intended to enhance Salesforce's data foundation, supporting its capabilities in what it describes as agentic artificial intelligence (AI). By integrating Informatica's data catalogue, data integration, governance, quality and privacy controls, metadata management, and Master Data Management (MDM) services with the Salesforce platform, the companies aim to create a unified architecture for intelligent AI agents to operate safely, responsibly, and at scale in enterprise environments. Marc Benioff, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce, commented on the agreement: "We're excited to acquire Informatica for approximately $8 billion — uniting the world's #1 AI CRM with the #1 AI-powered MDM and ETL platform. This combination brings together Salesforce's Einstein and Informatica's CLAIRE AI engines to forge the ultimate AI-data platform — trusted, explainable, and built to scale. Together, we'll supercharge Agentforce, Data Cloud, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Customer 360, enabling autonomous agents to act with intelligence, context, and confidence across every enterprise. This is a transformational step in delivering enterprise-grade AI that is safe, responsible, and deeply integrated with the world's data." Benioff added, "This is a transformational step in delivering enterprise-grade AI that is safe, responsible, and deeply integrated with the world's data." Amit Walia, Chief Executive Officer of Informatica, stated, "Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses with the transformative power of their most critical asset — their data. We have a shared vision for how we can help organizations harness the full value of their data in the AI era." Salesforce has outlined that Informatica's cloud-native capabilities — such as its data catalogue, data integration, governance, quality and privacy systems, metadata management, and MDM — will be integrated with Salesforce's platform. The company aims to address challenges of AI at scale by improving data clarity through Data Cloud, supporting AI-driven agents with Agentforce, enhancing Salesforce CRM applications for more personalised experiences with reliable data, providing enriched data streams for MuleSoft, and delivering context-rich insights in Tableau. Steve Fisher, President and Chief Technology Officer at Salesforce, said, "Truly autonomous, trustworthy AI agents need the most comprehensive understanding of their data. The combination of Informatica's advanced catalog and metadata capabilities with our Agentforce platform delivers exactly this. Imagine an AI agent that goes beyond simply seeing data points to understand their full context — origin, transformation, quality, and governance. This clarity, from a unified Salesforce and Informatica solution, will allow all types of businesses to automate more complex processes and make more reliable AI-driven decisions." Upon completion, Salesforce plans to integrate Informatica's technology stack into its ecosystem, including elements such as data integration, quality, governance, and unified metadata for Agentforce, as well as implementing a unified data pipeline with MDM on Data Cloud. Salesforce will continue to support Informatica's development of data management products designed for a range of cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Robin Washington, President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Salesforce, said, "Our acquisition strategy is methodical, patient, and decisive — targeting transformative assets like Informatica when the calculus aligns to maximize customer success. This proposed acquisition will be a key enabler for Salesforce's next phase of AI-driven growth — and we will move quickly to integrate their capabilities and unlock synergies on a fast timeline, particularly in areas like Public Sector, Life Sciences, Healthcare, and Financial Services. We're laser-focused on accelerated execution to increase our market differentiation and deliver sustained benefits for all Salesforce stakeholders." The acquisition comes as Salesforce plans to further invest in Informatica's ecosystem of data and infrastructure partners, utilising its own marketing and distribution teams to accelerate Informatica's cloud business growth. Bruce Chizen, Informatica Chairman, said, "Permira and CPP Investments partnership with Informatica is clear proof of the benefits of a long-term investing mindset and focus on transformational growth at scale. This exceptional outcome with Salesforce is testament to that philosophy." The transaction is anticipated to be accretive to Salesforce on several financial measures from the second year following closure, including non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP earnings per share, and free cash flow, supported by expected cost synergies and increased revenue from a more comprehensive data portfolio. Salesforce does not expect the transaction to impact its capital return programme.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce CEO on why he defied conventional thinking by hiking earnings guidance
One thing you haven't seen much of this earnings season as the US economy slows at the hands of tariff policy concerns: guidance raises from Corporate America. Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff apparently missed that need to be conservative on the guide memo. The company beat on earnings after the close on Wednesday, and hiked its full year sales and profit outlooks. Benioff tells me the business is strong enough as to support a guidance raise despite the economic headwinds. "Everything went well for us this quarter. We had bookings go well, revenue went well and currency went well," Benioff said. Salesforce shares rose 1% in after-hours trading. While Salesforce's earnings will get their usual fair share of scrutiny, investors are still digesting Benioff dusting off his often aggressive M&A playbook. On Tuesday, Salesforce announced its first big acquisition since buying Slack for $27.7 billion in 2020. The tech giant — which has taken a break from its trademark deals to focus on margins — said it will buy Informatica for $8.8 billion. Amongst other synergies, the deal is expected to boost Salesforce's efforts in deploying AI agents inside of companies. Informatica's technology is seen as key to companies getting their data in a format and location that is compatible for AI agents to work their magic. The vibe on Wall Street was mostly positive on the deal, though there were a few detractors. "Investors have enjoyed the margin expansion and focus on organic product development and have not been enthusiastic about the prospect of another deal spree," said KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader. Salesforce over the past decade has spent close to $50 billion to acquire Slack, Mulesoft, and Tableau. Although the businesses have added to Salesforce's tech prowess with customers, integrations have proven challenging and have often weighed on margins. "Pro forma growth dilution aside, We believe Salesforce faces material integration risks (if it couldn't integrate past integrations well, why should it this time?), losing INFA's Switzerland status, and potential increased churn," explained Guggenheim analyst Howard Ma. By "Switzerland Status", Ma is referring to Informatica being an independent third party. That has allowed it to provide its services to the likes of Oracle (ORCL), Amazon (AMZN) AWS, DataBricks and others. Said independence would go away as the company comes under Salesforce's wings, which may lead to customer loss. Benioff says he is open to doing more deals, but will maintain the company's newfound financial discipline. "You can see how we have a whole new disciplined approach to acquisitions. This deal specifically, you know, we walked away from it a year ago because the numbers were not exactly right and then we came back to it because the numbers were right now" Benioff said on Informatica. Net sales: $9.8 billion (+8% year over year) vs. $9.75 billion estimate Current remaining performance obligations: $29.6 billion (+12% year over year) vs. $29.05 billion estimate Adjusted operating margin: 32.3% (vs. 31.2% a year ago) vs. 32.6% estimate Diluted earnings per share: $2.58 (+5.7% year over year) vs. $2.55 estimate Full-year sales guidance: $41 billion to $41.3 billion vs. $40.82 billion estimate (previous guidance: $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion Full-year operating margin guidance: 34% (previous guidance: 34%) Full-year EPS guidance: $11.27 to $11.33 vs. $11.16 estimate (previous guidance: $11.09 to $11.17) Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram and on LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce CEO on why he defied conventional thinking by hiking earnings guidance
One thing you haven't seen much of this earnings season as the US economy slows at the hands of tariff policy concerns: guidance raises from Corporate America. Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff apparently missed that need to be conservative on the guide memo. The company beat on earnings after the close on Wednesday, and hiked its full year sales and profit outlooks. Benioff tells me the business is strong enough as to support a guidance raise despite the economic headwinds. "Everything went well for us this quarter. We had bookings go well, revenue went well and currency went well," Benioff said. Salesforce shares rose 1% in after-hours trading. While Salesforce's earnings will get their usual fair share of scrutiny, investors are still digesting Benioff dusting off his often aggressive M&A playbook. On Tuesday, Salesforce announced its first big acquisition since buying Slack for $27.7 billion in 2020. The tech giant — which has taken a break from its trademark deals to focus on margins — said it will buy Informatica for $8.8 billion. Amongst other synergies, the deal is expected to boost Salesforce's efforts in deploying AI agents inside of companies. Informatica's technology is seen as key to companies getting their data in a format and location that is compatible for AI agents to work their magic. The vibe on Wall Street was mostly positive on the deal, though there were a few detractors. "Investors have enjoyed the margin expansion and focus on organic product development and have not been enthusiastic about the prospect of another deal spree," said KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader. Salesforce over the past decade has spent close to $50 billion to acquire Slack, Mulesoft, and Tableau. Although the businesses have added to Salesforce's tech prowess with customers, integrations have proven challenging and have often weighed on margins. "Pro forma growth dilution aside, We believe Salesforce faces material integration risks (if it couldn't integrate past integrations well, why should it this time?), losing INFA's Switzerland status, and potential increased churn," explained Guggenheim analyst Howard Ma. By "Switzerland Status", Ma is referring to Informatica being an independent third party. That has allowed it to provide its services to the likes of Oracle (ORCL), Amazon (AMZN) AWS, DataBricks and others. Said independence would go away as the company comes under Salesforce's wings, which may lead to customer loss. Benioff says he is open to doing more deals, but will maintain the company's newfound financial discipline. "You can see how we have a whole new disciplined approach to acquisitions. This deal specifically, you know, we walked away from it a year ago because the numbers were not exactly right and then we came back to it because the numbers were right now" Benioff said on Informatica. Net sales: $9.8 billion (+8% year over year) vs. $9.75 billion estimate Current remaining performance obligations: $29.6 billion (+12% year over year) vs. $29.05 billion estimate Adjusted operating margin: 32.3% (vs. 31.2% a year ago) vs. 32.6% estimate Diluted earnings per share: $2.58 (+5.7% year over year) vs. $2.55 estimate Full-year sales guidance: $41 billion to $41.3 billion vs. $40.82 billion estimate (previous guidance: $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion Full-year operating margin guidance: 34% (previous guidance: 34%) Full-year EPS guidance: $11.27 to $11.33 vs. $11.16 estimate (previous guidance: $11.09 to $11.17) Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram and on LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
