Marc Benioff Net Worth - How Salesforce's Founder Transformed An Idea Into Billions
Have you ever wondered what the Marc Benioff net worth is? Stay on this post and you will definitely find the answers to all your questions that are bothering you. The creator, chairman, and co-CEO of renowned software giant Salesforce.com is Marc Benioff.
James K.Sep 22, 20232857 Shares50115 Views
Have you ever wondered what the Marc Benioff net worthis? Stay on this post and you will definitely find the answers to all your questions that are bothering you. The creator, chairman, and co-CEO of renowned software giant Salesforce.com is Marc Benioff.
Benioff donates a lot of money to charities and causes, and he has expressed a variety of left-of-center political opinions including opposition to capitalism, support for stringent gun regulation, defense of liberal-left solutions to homelessness, and endorsement of liberal expansionist immigration policy.
In San Francisco, California, on September 25, 1964, Marc Russell Benioff was born. After finishing high school, Benioff attended the University of Southern California. He was raised in a Jewish household with deep ties to the San Francisco Bay Area. He eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration. David Benioff, the creator and producer of the "Game of Thrones" television series, is Marc's second cousin.
Marc had a penchant for programming early on despite majoring in business administration in college. He started selling software and video games while still in high school. He founded Liberty Software at the age of 15 and produced a number of popular Atari 8-bit video games. By the time he was 16 years old, his monthly royalties had increased to over $1,500, more than enough to cover the cost of his college tuition.
Benioff served as an intern at Apple Computer when he was still a student at USC. He was hired by Oracle Corporation after graduation. The next 13 years of Marc's work were devoted to moving up the Oracle ladder. In 1999, Benioff established Salesforce after leaving Oracle.
He was now residing in a leased residence in San Francisco. Marc was among the first to see the possibilities of SaaS, or "Software as a Service." Salesforce's early marketing slogans included "The End of Software." He coined the phrase "platform as a service," and many of his forecasts appear to have come true today.
In fact, many firms are adopting cloud computing as the standard, and this trend is anticipated to continue for many decades. Businesses were expected to spend at least $106 billion on SaaS solutions in 2016, according to a research from 2015. Salesforce was a pioneer in the drive to the cloud. The company's revenue for the 2015 fiscal year was $5.37 billion.
At the time, a cloud computing business had accomplished a significant feat if its sales surpassed $5 billion. Marc boasted that Salesforce will soon quadruple that sum and become the quickest corporate software firm to cross $10 billion in sales shortly after this accomplishment. Additionally, Benioff said that he already had contracts for $9 billion.Salesforce now brings in well over $25 billion annually.
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Marc now owns 4% of Salesforce. The company's market capitalization presently exceeds $160 billion. Given these figures, it is easy to understand where the bulk of Benioff's net worth originates. He has sold shares worth around $1.5 billion over the years.
Benioff has throughout the years made a number of noteworthy purchases that have increased both his own net worth and Salesforce's performance. When Salesforce paid a cool $2.3 billion for the email marketing firm ExactTarget in 2013, it made one of its most significant purchases.
Buddy Media was purchased by Salesforce for $689 million a year ago. A few months later, Salesforce made another acquisition, paying $70 million to acquire the Canadian firm Golnstant. Of course, Salesforce has also before been on the losing end of an auction. For many years, Microsoft has tried to buy the business, and the legendary computing corporation allegedly offered $55 billion to buy Salesforce.
Benioff insisted on at least $70 billion for his firm, determined to profit from Salesforce's success. The transaction finally failed when Microsoft withdrew. Marc is well known for having criticized Microsoft in the past, particularly in relation to Steve Ballmer, the organization's previous CEO.
Given his wealth, Benioff has accumulated an outstanding real estate portfolio over the years, as one would anticipate. On the major island of Hawaii, he has a sprawling property that is one of his most noteworthy assets. Six bedrooms and approximately 10,000 square feet of living space are included with the estate.
After paying $12.5 million for the Hawaii property's undeveloped land in 2000, Marc spent years planning and constructing the house from the ground up. Benioff even started his own construction business with the express goal of constructing his house. Without a doubt, Marc maintains a presence in the real estate market in "big tech" areas like San Francisco.
He is said to possess a $28 million property on Billionaire Row in San Francisco's Pacific Heights district, a super-exclusive enclave with only 10 residences. According to reports, Marc also paid $27 million for a 15,858-square-foot home in Southern California's "big tech" district in 2005.
American entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist Marc Benioff has a $6.7 billion USD net worth. The chief executive officer, founder, and chairman of Salesforce is Marc Benioff. Salesforce generates about $17 billion in sales annually, making it one of the most lucrative and successful cloud computing businesses in the world.
Fun fact: David Benioff, who produces the HBO series Game of Thrones, is Marc's distant cousin. Their granddad is the same. In addition to his accomplishments in big tech, Benioff and his wife Lynn have dabbled in the media industry, acquiring Time for $190 million in 2018.
Marc is a well-known philanthropist who has generously donated to many different charities and organizations. He has contributed over $250 million to a project with the University of California, San Francisco to build a brand-new children's hospital. Benioff promised to donate $100 million to the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in 2020.
Marc is also credited for popularizing the charity concept known as the "1-1-1 model". By using this strategy, startups give 1% of their stock, 1% of their goods, and 1% of the time donated by their staff to charity.
Although Salesforce pioneered this strategy, many other businesses have now followed it, which has had a big positive impact on a number of charitable organizations. One of the most well-known businesses that use this concept is Google. The Salesforce.com Foundation is a distinct charitable division of Benioff's business with an annual budget of roughly $20 million.
Additionally, Benioff and his wife Lynne have donated more than $66 million to Bay Area groups that deal with homelessness. This includes a $30 million donation to establish the University of California-San Francisco's (UCSF) Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, which carries out research on the causes of homelessness and the best ways to combat it. Benioff also contributed $6.1 million to turn the 58-unit Bristol Hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin District into homeless housing.
Benioff and his wife purchased Time magazine for $190 million in 2018. Benioff serves as the Salesforce Foundation's chairman as well. In 2017, the foundation distributed mostly small-dollar gifts totaling around $1.8 million, primarily from employee-directed contributions.
Many of Benioff's left-progressive political beliefs have been implemented via his enterprises. Benioff is a significant contributor to the Democratic Party and its politicians. As of 2014, he has given $300,000 to other Democratic candidates and party groups. He is said to have "bundled" around $500,000 to President Barack Obama's reelection campaign.
Benioff attracted news in 2019 for declaring that "capitalism is dead" and urging the adoption of a new kind of capitalism that opposes "Milton Friedman capitalism, that's just about making money," in favor of a model that places an emphasis on "the social good" and "stakeholders instead of shareholders." His approach to business has been dubbed "a millennial view of the world."
Millennials want purpose in their employment. They want to believe they are doing something to better the world. Benioff claims he was "shocked by the resistance" among tech sector executives to San Francisco's 2018 Proposition C, which increased company taxes to collect money to combat homelessness locally.
Benioff contributed more than $2 million to the law's supporters and engaged in a well-reported Twitter argument with the law's opponents, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
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The 1-1-1 model, introduced by Marc Benioff, involves donating 1% of Salesforce's equity, 1% of its product, and 1% of its employees' time to charitable causes.
In conclusion, Marc Benioff is a prominent figure in the technology and business world. As the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce, he has played a significant role in shaping the cloud computing and customer relationship management industries. His visionary leadership, innovative approach to technology, and commitment to social responsibility have contributed to Salesforce's growth and success.
Beyond his business achievements, Marc Benioff is known for his philanthropic efforts and advocacy for various social causes. He has used his platform and resources to promote environmental sustainability, equality, and philanthropy among fellow business leaders.