Salesforce ‘s strong earnings results should give CEO Marc Benioff some relief from ongoing activist pressure at the cloud software firm. “This gives him definitive breathing room right now,” Steve Grasso, CEO of Grasso Global, said Wednesday on CNBC’s ” Fast Money .” “[Benioff has] come out with a home run here or a grand slam relative to the fears, or relative to where the market was positioning, going into the sprint. He knocked the cover off the ball.” Salesforce shares surged 15% in extended trading Wednesday after the cloud software maker beat expectations on the top and bottom lines , and issued a better forecast than Wall Street was expecting. “This sort of takes some wind out of the sails of the activists,” said Karen Finerman, CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors, noting that “these numbers across the board were really, really strong.” The cloud computing firm turned its focus to profitability as it dealt with a growing number of activist investors taking stakes in the company. In January, Salesforce said it would cut 10% of its workforce , or more than 7,000 workers, as part of a restructuring plan. Salesforce in recent months has faced increasing activist pressure from firms such as Elliott Management, Third Point and Starboard Value. Recently, the company added ValueAct Capital CEO Mason Morfit will join its board this month . Meanwhile, Bret Taylor, who was co-CEO alongside Benioff, stepped down last year . To be sure, the strong results may not help Benioff for long, the “Fast Money” traders said. “This is not going to go into buy him a lot of time, right?” Grasso said. “This could give him a week. And then all of a sudden the activists now start breathing down his throat yet again.”
