Regulators direct Paxos, a Binance partner, to stop minting the BUSD stablecoin. The move, by the New York Department of Financial Services, comes as the S.E.C. plans to sue Paxos for violating investor protection rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cryptocurrency prices were lower on Monday.
Benioff’s ‘Ohana’ credo faces a test from activists
Mark Benioff has long believed Salesforce, the company he co-founded, could deliver big returns for shareholders and society at large. With the stock underperforming and activists swarming, Benioff’s model has never been more under threat, The Times’s David Streitfeld reports.
Mr. Benioff’s big test starts now. The nomination window opened on Sunday for activist investors to put forth nominees to the board, and it closes March 14. There are five activist investors in total, with Elliott Management the most active of the bunch. So far, it’s been working behind the scenes with Salesforce, DealBook has learned.
Headwinds at Salesforce are numerous. In November, the enterprise software giant announced the surprise departure of its co-C.E.O. Bret Taylor. It also lowered its guidance for the year as clients pulled back on technology spending. To fend off activist investors eager to see greater profits, Salesforce has appointed three new board members, including ValueAct’s Mason Morfit.
Mr. Benioff’s vision of workplace harmony is under scrutiny. Last month, Salesforce said it would lay off 10 percent of its staff, a decision that may improve the bottom line, but also seemed to contradict the company’s “Ohana” credo of one big happy family. “The reality is when you have a big company with 80,000 employees, there are going to be times you have to make a head count adjustment,” he said, adding that the layoff packages, which included nearly five months’ pay, were “some of the most generous ever.”
After the layoffs, Mr. Benioff went to French Polynesia for a 10-day digital detox.
He still believes he can be a force for good. “You’re not going to be happy if you’re not giving to others,” Mr. Benioff said. “A lot of my tech peers are extremely unhappy.” Mr. Benioff talked about his grandfather, Marvin E. Lewis, a San Francisco trial lawyer and politician who was a major force behind BART, the regional transit system. “He was in business as a lawyer but made the world a better place,” Benioff said.
