Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield poses for photos outside the New York Stock Exchange before his company's IPO, Thursday, June 20, 2019. Butterfield is leaving the company, now owned by Salesforce, in January.
Richard Drew, STF / APSlack CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield is leaving the messaging company, which is owned by Salesforce.
Butterfield is departing in January, around the same time that Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor isalso stepping down.
“This has nothing to do with Bret’s departure. Planning has been in the works for several months! Just weird timing,” Butterfield posted in an internal company message, according to Insider,which first reported the departure.
Lidiane Jones, a Salesforce executive, will succeed Butterfield.
“Stewart is an incredible leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack. He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce,” a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement. “Lidiane has a strong background in customer and enterprise tech and has been among Salesforce’s leadership for over three years. We’re grateful for Stewart and excited for Lidiane as she takes over the reins of Slack.”
Salesforce’s $27.7 billion purchase of Slack wascompleted last yearand was the second-biggest in tech history. Both San Francisco-based companies saw booming business during the pandemic, but a tech downturn is pushing Salesforce to cut costs. The companylaid off hundreds of sales stafflast month.
Slack is still seeing strong growth, with subscription and support revenue of $402 million in the fiscal third quarter ending in October, up from $276 million from the fiscal third quarter last year.
Butterfield previously co-founded photo-sharing company Flickr, which was sold to Yahoo in 2005. Slack began as an internal messaging tool and was released publicly in 2013.
Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
