CFO Exits Salesforce.com

Beth Cox

Updated · Mar 27, 2002

Chief Financial Officer Andrew Hyde has quietly departed online CRM company
Salesforce.com Inc., the second top exec to leave the privately held, San
Francisco-based ASP operation in five months.

John Dillon, the firm’s president and CEO of two years and the former head of
Hyperion Solutions,
departed last November.
Company co-founder and chairman Marc Benioff took
over the CEO duties.

But Benioff told InternetNews.com today that “only good things are happening
at the company,” which is expected to triple its revenues in 2002 for the
third year in a row.

As far as Hyde’s departure is concerned, he said: “We have parted ways, and
we have hired (a search firm) to acquire a new CFO for us who has experience
running a public company and is familiar with the IPO process.” Hyde was
named to the post in January 2000.


Hyde told InternetNews.com that he is bound by the terms of his settlement
agreement with the company and therefore could not comment on the reasons
behind his departure.

Benioff would not comment directly on when an IPO might be on tap, but he did
say that the company’s metrics are coming into line. He said Salesforce.com
“will do about $10 million for this quarter, and our third birthday was March
8.” He said the company projects revenues of $50 million to $60 million for
2002.

As for Dillon’s departure, Benioff said at the time that “every company goes
though transitions and the company is moving into its next stage of growth
right now. We made the decision together that John was going to transition
out of his job.”

The company, founded in 1999 by Benioff and chief technology officer Dave
Moellenhoff, is a provider of Web-based saleforce automation and customer
relationship management software and has been seen as an aggressive upstart
in its battle against established competitors such as Siebel Systems Inc. < QUOTE NASDAQ:SEBL> and Onyx Software Corp. .

Salesforce.com says it has 3,800 client companies worldwide, including Adobe
Systems, Daiwa Bank, USA Today, Autodesk and Dow Jones Newswires, among
others.

Beth Cox
Beth Cox

Beth Cox has been a well-known keynote speaker and author as well as a business and technology advisor. She helps companies improve their business performance, better utilize data, and understands the implications of new technologies, such as (AI)artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains and the Internet of Things.

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