• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechSalesforce

Salesforce wants to cut $3 billion to $5 billion in costs, and real estate is a big target. Some offices have less than 10% occupancy, exec says.

Kylie Robison
By
Kylie Robison
Kylie Robison
Down Arrow Button Icon
Kylie Robison
By
Kylie Robison
Kylie Robison
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 6, 2023, 6:01 PM ET
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff
Salesforce CEO Marc BenioffDavid Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Salesforce aims to reduce its costs by as much as $3 billion to $5 billion, CEO Marc Benioff told insiders this week, as the cloud company slashes thousands of jobs from its payroll and dumps office spaces that have sat largely empty since the start of the pandemic.

The company announced it would be axing 10% of its staff on Wednesday in a sweeping cost-cutting measure that was described as part of an “ongoing commitment to profitable growth.” During several all-hands meetings with employees on Thursday, Salesforce executives shared more details about the restructuring, including the aggressive, multi-billion dollar cost reduction target, which has not previously been reported.

“This is a larger moment for cost restructuring, we want to take…. we don’t know… somewhere between $3 to $5 billion out of the business,” Benioff told employees during one of the meetings for which Fortune obtained an audio recording.

“When we look at how are we going to do that, real estate is going to be a major part of it. We don’t need the same level of real estate that we had pre pandemic,” Benioff said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not still growing. So this is a company that is still growing and is still very successful. But we are adjusting some aspects of our cost structure.”

In a separate all-hands meeting held by Salesforce’s chat service subsidiary Slack, an executive said that the occupancy rate at some Salesforce offices is “still well below 20%” and “some of them are below 10%.”

“It’s really hard to justify having all of that space,” said Slack chief of staff Robby Kwok.

The moves come as Salesforce is facing pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, which has criticized Salesforce for its low profit margin. According to Starboard, Salesforce’s 19% operating margin in 2021 lags competitors like Oracle, Adobe and Microsoft which had margins above 45% that year.

In September, Salesforce told investors it had a set a target to reach 25% adjusted operating margin in its fiscal 2026 year along with a plan to generate $50 billion in revenue.

During Thursday’s Slack all-hands meeting, Kwok said that Salesforce currently has more than 150 offices worldwide. A Salesforce representative declined to comment on leaked information, but pointed Fortune to a corporate blog post last updated in December 2022 that says Salesforce has 110 global offices. Among Salesforce’s offices is the flagship, 61-story Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco, which is the tallest building in the city’s skyline.

According to a Salesforce regulatory filing related to the restructuring on Wednesday, the company will incur $450 million to $650 million in “exit charges” as a result of the office space reductions, and between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion in overall charges, including layoffs, as a result of the restructuring.

Salesforce’s efforts to prune its real estate holdings adds another wrinkle to the company’s post-pandemic operations. CEO Benioff has previously said that employees hired in recent years have not been as productive as previous hires, and suggested that remote work may be one reason.

“It’s kind of a funny thing, on one side, we’re mentioning to our employees online: Are we more productive by not coming into the office as much?” Benioff said in Thursday’s meeting. “And then on the other side, we say: Well, we’re thinking about having less real estate. ‘Why are you taking down real estate?’ So there’s two sides of the coin and that’s what it’s like to be a leader in this company. You have to deal with everybody.”

Do you have insight to share? Got a tip? Contact Kylie Robison at kylie.robison@fortune.com, through secure messaging app Signal at 415-735-6829, or via Twitter DM.

About the Author
Kylie Robison
By Kylie Robison
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Commentary
Yes, you're getting a bigger tax refund. Your kids won't thank you for the $3 trillion it's adding to the deficit
By Daniel BunnJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Despite running $75 billion automaker General Motors, CEO Mary Barra still responds to ‘every single letter’ she gets by hand
By Preston ForeJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
An unusual Fed ‘rate check’ triggered a free fall in the U.S. dollar and investors are fleeing into gold
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, January 26, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Tuesday, January 27, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 27, 2026
15 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
'The Bermuda Triangle of Talent': 27-year-old Oxford grad turned down McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to find out why Gen Z’s smartest keep selling out
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 25, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in Tech

Photo of Elon Musk
Big TechX
New filings exposing Elon Musk’s financials for X in the U.K. show revenue plummeted 58% in 2024
By Lily Mae LazarusJanuary 27, 2026
7 hours ago
People walk outside of a WeWork office building in London.
Future of WorkOffice Culture
Amazon and JPMorgan led the Fortune 500 in returning to the office 5 days a week. Now they’re leading a coworking comeback
By Jacqueline MunisJanuary 27, 2026
8 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIEye on AI
At Davos, CEOs said AI isn’t coming for jobs as fast as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei thinks
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 27, 2026
8 hours ago
Corning CEO Wendell Weeks.
AIData centers
A Meta deal just turned this 175-year-old company into a linchpin of the AI data center boom
By Sharon GoldmanJanuary 27, 2026
9 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIDario Amodei
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s 20,000-word essay on how AI ‘will test’ humanity is a must-read—but more for his remedies than his warnings
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 27, 2026
10 hours ago
trump
CybersecuritySocial Media
The White House vows ‘the memes will continue,’ but misinformation experts say please, make it stop
By Kaitlyn Huamani and The Associated PressJanuary 27, 2026
11 hours ago