Salesforce’s Marc Benioff touts the Trump tax cuts: I don’t know a CEO who’s not aggressively spending (CRM)

marc benioff

CEOs around the world are spending more "aggressively" than ever, said Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff on an earnings call Wednesday.
Benioff attributed the flow of cash to tax cuts and deregulation happening around the world.
Salesforce, which grew its revenue by 27% in the quarter, is benefiting since many of the CEOs have chosen to spend their extra cash on "digital transformation," he said.

Salesforce's revenues were up 27% in the second quarter, and the company has big-spending executives to thank.

On the Salesforce quarterly earnings call Wednesday, co-CEO Marc Benioff said he's "never seen CEOs spend so aggressively," and that much of their money is going toward tools for "digital transformation," such as Salesforce's software.

"They've benefitted really dramatically from these tax cuts and especially from the deregulation focus — especially in the United States," Benioff said. "Across the board, I don't know a CEO who's not aggressively spending at a level that I have not seen them spend on before."

The comments appeared to give credit to the tax cuts and deregulatory focus of the Trump administration, an interesting bit of praise by Benioff who has been an outspoken opponent of Trump policies on issues like immigration.

Benioff, who was in Switzerland last week to meet with European executives, said the trend holds true of executives across the US, Europe and Asia.

In Switzerland, Benioff said, executives expressed a desire to have more one-on-one interactions between consumers and brand.

"I see a deep yearning for them to have a more complete relationship with their customer," Benioff said.

Salesforce shares were down nearly 4% in after hours trading Wednesday, despite a beat on revenue and earnings for the quarter. The company missed analysts' expectations on earnings per share for the current third quarter, however.

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