Salesforce has joined ranks with technology peers Twitter and Meta as it starts laying off hundreds of employees this week. Credit: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com Cloud-based CRM software provider Salesforce has become the latest technology company to announce mass layoffs, cutting at least hundreds of jobs from its 73,000-person workforce. “Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition,” Salesforce said in a statement confirming the layoffs. Salesforce has experienced a relatively successful year financially, with the company’s second quarter revenue rising 22% year on year, driven by rapid adoption of its cloud-based CRM and other sales management tools. The company is facing pressure to cut costs since last month when activist hedge fund Starboard Value took a stake in the company and immediately called for Salesforce to increase its margins, although Starboard didn’t explicitly call for a workforce reduction. Salesforce is not the only tech company to announce job cuts this month. Last week, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, fired almost half of the social media platform’s workforce in addition to the company’s senior leadership team. Meta has also announced it is reducing the size of its workforce by 13%, leading to 11,000 employees losing their jobs. In a statement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg said that the company would also be taking a number of additional steps to become a “leaner and more efficient company,” by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1. Related content news SAP, IBM Consulting partner to offer genAI-based services The partnership will see both companies offer generative AI-based services to enterprises via RISE with SAP offering. By Anirban Ghoshal May 09, 2024 3 mins Generative AI IBM SAP feature Essential skills and traits of chief AI officers CAIOs require a multidimensional skill set to drive innovation, establish and lead an AI-ready culture, and create tangible organizational results leveraging a complex and rapidly evolving technology. By David Weldon May 09, 2024 9 mins Artificial Intelligence IT Leadership case study How being cloud smart fosters growth at Saab Fuelled by global turbulence and increasing defense budgets, Swedish defense group Saab is meeting high demand by integrating efforts to become more software-driven, and central to managing it all is CIO Annette Eriksson. By Karin Lindström May 09, 2024 5 mins CIO Aerospace and Defense Industry Cloud Architecture interview Strong CIO-CISO relations fuel success at Ally CIO Sathish Muthukrishnan and CISO Donna Hart have forged a partnership steeped in Ally’s culture of radical candor that keeps the financial services firm secure and innovative. By Dan Roberts May 09, 2024 9 mins CIO CSO and CISO IT Leadership PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe