Salesforce and Zoom scored $34 million in gains after Monday.com stock surged 22% in 2 days
Good Monday #GoodMonday
Salesforce and Zoom made a combined $34 million in two days thanks to Monday.com’s strong market debut last week.
The enterprise-software group and video-communications specialist each bought $75 million of Monday.com stock in private placements. They paid the IPO price of $155 a share, meaning they received around 484,000 shares each.
Monday.com, which allows companies to build their own applications and work-management software on its cloud-based platform, went public on Thursday. Its stock ended the week up 22% at $189.
Video: Why This Analyst Is Picking Salesforce Over Zoom (TheStreet)
Why This Analyst Is Picking Salesforce Over Zoom
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As a result, Salesforce and Zoom’s stakes in Monday.com surged in value to about $92 million each.
Salesforce, led by its billionaire cofounder and CEO Marc Benioff, has struck lucrative side deals with several technology companies ahead of their IPOs. For example, it plowed $250 million into Snowflake when the cloud-data platform went public last fall, and piled $100 million into Zoom when it floated in the spring of 2019.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway joined Salesforce in investing $250 million into Snowflake, but went a step further by handing $485 million to the startup’s former CEO to secure another 4 million shares. Berkshire followed up the uncharacteristic bet last week by injecting $500 million into Nubank as part of the Brazilian fintech’s latest fundraising round.
It’s possible that Salesforce, best known for its customer-relationship management (CRM) tools, could double down on Monday.com or cash out its profits once the lockup period expires in six months. After all, SEC filings show that it boosted its Snowflake stake to nearly 5 million shares worth $1.1 billion last quarter, while it sold its Zoom position in the second quarter of 2020 after it more than tripled in value.