A 10% workforce reduction by Salesforce is rippling through the ranks of Tableau Software, the Seattle-based data visualization company acquired by the San Francisco-based enterprise tech giant for $15.7 billion more than three years ago.
Several longtime employees and senior leaders from Tableau posted on LinkedIn this morning that their jobs were cut as part of the larger restructuring, announced Wednesday morning by the maker of customer relationship management applications and other cloud-based business software.
In a letter to employees, disclosed in a regulatory filing, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the cutbacks were driven by a “challenging” economic environment in which customers “are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.” The 10% reduction will take place primarily over the coming weeks, Benioff wrote.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment,” Benioff added. “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.”
Tableau’s results reflect the larger trend. Its revenue of $516 million in the October 2022 quarter represented growth of less than 8%, compared with four straight quarters of growth ranging from 22% to 38% in 2021, as reflected in Salesforce’s financial reports.
Prior to the cuts, Salesforce employed about 4,000 people in the Seattle area, including Tableau employees. A company spokesperson declined to detail the impact of the cutbacks on the regional workforce.
The restructuring plan includes “select real estate exits and office space reductions within certain markets,” Salesforce said in a regulatory filing, without providing further information.
The cutbacks follow the departure of Tableau Software CEO Mark Nelson in December, after Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor unexpectedly announced that he was also stepping down, effective Jan. 31. Also leaving is Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, which Salesforce acquired for $27.7 billion in 2020.
