Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM, ETR:FOO) shareholders voted against their pay last year in a major show of discontent against the CRM platform.
According to filings from Monday’s AGM, around 405 million votes were cast against management’s remuneration with 339 million in favour.
The vote is non-binding but an indicator of the mood of investors about how the company is performing.
In particular, investors were said to be concerned about equity awards granted to the CEO with two of the largest institutional advisory firms, Glass Lewis and ISS, urging shareholders to vote against.
Although Benioff’s base salary was unchanged at US$1.5 million in the year to January 2024, he received US$39.6 million in total pay, up from $29.9 million in the prior year.
In January, the board’s compensation committee gave Benioff a second long-term equity award worth US$20 million, based on “successful transformation actions and strong financial performance in the fiscal year”.
Glass Lewis wrote in its recommendation that “shareholders may reasonably be wary of the substantial discretionary equity grants” issued to Benioff in January, adding the grants lacked a “fully convincing rationale”.
Glass Lewis added that as Benioff has a sizeable shareholding the additional bonuses were “unwarranted”.
In a statement, Salesforce replied: “Our Compensation Committee, which is responsible for designing and administering our executive compensation program, values the opinions expressed by our stockholders and will consider the outcome of this vote when making future executive compensation decisions.”
Salesforce shares rose 67% in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in January, but since March have dropped by 20%.
Revenue increased 11% to $34.9 billion from $31.4 billion.