Profile
Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff buried the hatchet with his old mentor and fellow billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle in June when the pair announced an alliance to sell more Internet-based software. Now friends, the two publicly put behind a name-calling past in favor of a partnership that will see each company integrate the other's products in cloud-based software offerings. The pact comes nearly 15 years after Benioff left Oracle, where he was Ellison's protégé, to start Salesforce.com in 1999. It has grown into an enterprise software giant on an acquisition warpath. In its latest catch, Salesforce purchased email marketing company ExactTarget for around $2.3 billion in July. It acquired Buddy Media for $689 million in June 2012 and, months later, Canadian startup Golnstant for a reported $70 million. Benioff founded his first company, which created Atari video games, when he was 15. He hosted a $35,800-a-plate dinner for President Obama at his home in April 2011, but also gave to Rep. Paul Ryan before Mitt Romney picked Ryan as his running mate for the 2012 Presidential election. A frequent visitor to Hawaii, where he has a second home, he signs off on emails "Aloha." [...] more