(CercleFinance.com) – The action Salesforce signs the largest drop in the Dow Jones index on Thursday, the quarterly results of the American software publisher being overshadowed by the unexpected announcement of the departure of its co-CEO.
At 10:15 a.m. (New York time), the title of the specialist in customer relationship management (CRM) in ‘cloud’ mode fell by more than 10% while the industrial index fell by 0.8%.
The Californian group reported yesterday evening a turnover of 7.84 billion dollars for its third fiscal quarter, ended at the end of October, up 14% in published data and 19% at constant exchange rates.
This performance is in line with the consensus of analysts, who were targeting 7.83 billion.
Its earnings per share (EPS) stood at $1.40 for the quarter, against $1.27 a year earlier, a figure higher than the consensus which was targeting $1.22.
For the fourth quarter, the San Francisco group said it was aiming for sales of between 7.932 and 8.032 billion dollars, compared with a consensus of eight billion.
EPS is expected, for its part, from 1.35 to 1.37 dollars, against a consensus established at 1.35 dollars.
Beyond these figures, it is above all the announcement of the surprise departure of Bret Taylor, the co-CEO, on January 31, which focuses the attention of investors.
It is Marc Benioff who will take full powers on this date by assuming the duties of CEO.
‘His departure took us somewhat by surprise’, acknowledge this morning the analysts of Jefferies. “It proves above all that the model with two co-directors general does not work,” underlines the design office.
‘With the departure of Taylor, Benioff could be more aggressive in terms of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the field of the cloud’, predicted from his side Wedbush Securities.
According to the broker, several targets could arise in the sector against a backdrop of slowing economic activity.
‘Everything revolves around the battle that the group is waging with Microsoft to gain market share in the cloud and collaborative tools’, indeed recalls Wedbush.
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