Marc Benioff
He’s the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world’s largest software companies, which owns the popular messaging service Slack and is worth nearly $300 billion. He also owns Time magazine.
When I ask Benioff about the properties in the anonymous LLCs, things seem to take a turn. He starts speaking more quickly and fidgets with a piece of paper in his hand. He’s reluctant to go through the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom call jumps in to say we can discuss later.
A couple of days before the interview, Benioff texted the same NPR colleague again, asking for intel on my story. Then he called me and demanded to know the title of this piece. During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, “It’s my job. You have a job and I have a job.” During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.
I leave the meeting disconcerted and still unclear about what exactly is happening with his land in Waimea.
The following day, I drive around with a photographer to take pictures of the town and Benioff’s projects. We go to the property he described as a community center and are confronted by one of his employees. The photographer explains we’re there to take photos of the outside of the building. Shortly afterward, I get a text from Benioff. His employee seemed to think we were “snooping,” and he says he’s escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, without going into detail — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn’t respond to my question about the purpose of this call.
But if it’s worth more because you need it to complete you doomsday bunker than fair market says you can ask for whatever is fair and the other side willing to pay.
Hiding your intentions may be smart but it’s also very much trying to avoid paying a fair price.
I don’t understand… Was he morally obligated to disclose the fact that he wants to build a large underground structure for some reason? Does that change the fact that they have land they want to sell, and he wants to purchase it?
Morally? No of course not. Morals don’t exist really just shared rules.
Which that’s what is failed by using lots of hidden companies in shells that are hard to source back. If he was buying the land himself anyone could say yes and take whatever was offered but also they can do due diligence and bargain for more since that land means more to the rich man collectively than it does separately to landowners before.
It takes away the ability for those who are not as capable but just as smart to be informed and potentially collective bargain should they want to do so. It puts all the negotiation power on one side and isn’t fair to an open informed market.