While Salesforce Inc. has been slashing jobs and looking for ways to cut costs, it has also reportedly been paying actor Matthew McConaughey more than $ 10 million a year to serve as a creative adviser and TV pitchman.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that McConaughey, a friend of Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff, was receiving an eight-figure compensation plan made up of cash and equity. The deal was significant enough that it needed to be approved by Salesforce’s compensation committee, the Journal reported. Benioff told the Journal he played no part in the deal.
In January, Salesforce CRM, +0.29% announced plans to lay off about 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort, and in the Journal report, Benioff discussed a proposal — later scrapped — to rank employees and routinely fire the bottom-performing ones. The company this year has dropped a number of amenities amid the belt-tightening, including “well-being” days and in-house baristas, and cut ties with a corporate retreat it touted as recently as last fall. The Journal did not say whether McConaughey’s deal was being reexamined.
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It was also unclear when the deal was signed, but McConaughey appeared at Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in September, speaking about his presidential ambitions, and starred in a Salesforce TV commercial that ran during the Super Bowl in 2022.
That commercial, featuring McConaughey wearing an astronaut suit riding in a hot-air balloon and talking about engaging with the world, reportedly cost about $ 5 million. McConaughey starred in another Salesforce TV commercial promoting sustainability that debuted during NFL games last Thanksgiving.
Benioff said those marketing costs were a drop in the bucket for a company with 70,000 employees, the Journal reported.
Academy Award-winning actor McConaughey reportedly has a net worth of about $ 160 million.
Salesforce will report quarterly earnings Wednesday, and is under intense pressure from activist investors looking to maximize profits.
Salesforce shares are up 23% year to date, but have still fallen 22% over the past 12 months, and have lost about half their value since peaking in November 2021. Comparatively, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.71%, of which Salesforce is a component, has lost 1.5% in 2023 and 1.9% over the past year.