Salesforce shareholders vote against executive pay | Wilnesh News

sales force Investors voted against the company’s top executive compensation plan after a shareholder advisory group raised concerns about equity awards awarded to Chief Executive Marc Benioff.

according to a Supervision filing On Monday, the resolution approving the reparations received 339.3 million votes in favor and 404.8 million against at Thursday’s annual meeting.

The board urges shareholders to vote in favor of the resolution ahead of the event. But two shareholder advisory firms, Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, advised investors to reject the measure.

In fiscal 2024, Benioff’s total compensation was $39.6 million, up from $29.9 million the previous year. Although Benioff’s salary remained unchanged at $1.55 million, he received additional stock and option awards and non-equity incentive plan compensation, according to the proxy statement. The latest amount also includes guarantee fees that were not previously invoiced to the company.

In January, the board’s compensation committee awarded Benioff a second long-term equity award worth $20 million in recognition of the company’s “successful transformation actions and strong financial performance during the fiscal year,” among other factors.

“Shareholders may be wary of the large discretionary equity grant made to Benioff in January,” Glass Lewis wrote in its recommendation, adding that there was a “lack of entirely compelling rationale” behind the grants.

Benioff is already one of Salesforce’s largest shareholders, holding more than 2% of the stock worth nearly $6 billion. Glass-Lewis said in his proxy statement that additional performance-based restricted stock units and stock options are “unwarranted” because his interests are already aligned with those of shareholders.

Votes at the Annual Meeting are non-binding.

Salesforce’s board of directors said at the company’s shareholder meeting: “Our compensation committee, which designs and manages our executive compensation plans, values ​​the opinions expressed by shareholders and will consider the results of this vote when making future executive compensation decisions. ” Proxy Statement.

The company declined to comment.

Salesforce shares rose 67% in fiscal 2024, which ended January 31, its strongest performance since 2011.

Net profit for this fiscal year jumped to US$4.1 billion from US$208 million in the same period last year, and revenue increased by 11% from US$31.4 billion to US$34.9 billion. In January 2023, Salesforce announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce after activist investors began buying shares and demanding a better mix of profits and growth. Salesforce said in February it would begin paying dividends to shareholders.

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