Almost half of Salesforce shareholders voted against CEO Marc Benioff's $39 million pay package
According to an SEC document filed Tuesday, nearly 47% of the total shareholders voted against Salesforce's executive compensation packages at its annual shareholders meeting held last week (the count does not include shares held by brokers who did not vote).
It's rare to see a company doing as well as Salesforce - both in terms of revenue and stock performance - have almost half of its shareholders vote against executive compensation packages.
Of course, the shareholder votes are purely advisory. But it may be a sign of shareholders growing tired of Salesforce executives' rich compensation.
Last year, CEO Marc Benioff made $39.9 million in total compensation, a 25% raise from last year, with about $34.3 million coming in option awards. Its CFO Mark Hawkins made roughly $9.9 million, while President and Vice Chairman Keith Block made about $12.4 million in total.
In aggregate, the seven named executive officers made approximately $89.7 million in total compensation. That's more than 13% of the total general and administrative cost, where legal, utilities, and executive salary expenses are all looped in together.
Add to the fact that Salesforce is barely profitable despite hitting record-high sales numbers, and still not giving out any dividends yet - and shareholders may start to get more upset at what Salesforce executives are putting in their pockets every year.