Elliott has proposed its own list of potential Salesforce board members

One of the five activist investors working inside of Salesforce, Elliott Management, has proposed a list of candidates for the board of directors. Sources told that this action shows that attempts to fix the situation before it got to this point have failed.CNBC was the first to break this news.
‘Elliott has been in constructive but intensive communication with the firm over the last few weeks and has nominated a slate of members to the board of Salesforce,’ a person with knowledge of the situation.
The individual claimed that Elliott has applied the most pressure to the business through conversations and these nominations, and the company will be keenly monitoring what transpires when Salesforce releases its earnings later today.
“And we’ll basically see what happens, if and when they say things tonight that Elliott wants to hear, just changes and enhancements to the company as a whole. And the company will sort of decide on the following moves after the release of the earnings.
Getting a group of individuals on the board who can act on Elliott’s behalf and carry out whatever reforms they have in mind is the ultimate goal when a company nominates its own slate of candidates for the board. Even though they haven’t said exactly what they want, it’s clear that it has something to do with lowering operating costs, increasing profits, and maybe even selling off some of the company’s less important operations.
To date, the company has made other changes, like reducing its real estate footprint in an effort to minimize expenses, and has laid off 10% of its workers.
Elliott is not the only activist now employed by the company; it revealed in January that it was buying a multibillion-dollar stake. High-profile activists investing in Salesforce include Starboard Value, ValueAct, Inclusive Capital, and Third Point, which just got engaged last month. It is exceedingly unusual to have five activists working simultaneously within a firm like Salesforce, and this may be the first instance.
Salesforce declined to respond to the news. It will release its earnings after the bell this afternoon.