San Francisco-based cloud giant Salesforce jumped on the wave of layoffs in the tech sector back in January and said goodbye to around 8,000 workers. While this was considered a cost-cutting effort at the time, it appears that the company isn’t shy about spending the money for other purposes.
A recent report by Wall Street Journal revealed that despite layoffs, Salesforce kept its most famous employee in Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey. According to WSJ, McConaughey serves as a creative adviser and TV pitchman for the company and is getting $10 million annually for the work he does.
McConaughey, who appeared in a Super Bowl ad for Salesforce during LVI, reportedly receives his compensation in cash and equity. He is also a private friend of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, although the latter insists the actor’s involvement with the company is unrelated to that.
Despite the controversy, Salesforce is coming off a successful quarter. According to Wednesday’s Q4 results, the company had $8.38 billion in revenue compared to the $8 billion expected while also beating Wall Street’s adjusted earnings per share estimates with $1.68 versus the $1.37 expected.
The promising results have helped Salesforce stock to make a significant jump on Wednesday. After closing at $167.35 per share, the stock surged by 15.5% in after-hours trading.