Marc Benioff blasts SAP CEO: 'He’s scared of Salesforce' (CRM)

Salesforce.com Marc Benioff

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has turned up his trash talking game against rival software maker SAP recently, and it doesn't look like he's stopping any time soon.

On Thursday, during an event in SAP's home country Germany, Benioff said Bill McDermott, the CEO of the $90 billion German software maker, recently snubbed Benioff's outreach efforts.

“We offered an olive branch to them. I've told Bill I’ve wanted to have a deeper relationship with them. Yes we’re competitors, we should also be partners," Benioff said, according to Bloomberg.

"He’s scared of Salesforce.”

It's unclear when the said conversations took place, but Benioff was probably referring to meetings last year when Salesforce and SAP were reported to be seeking strategic alliances. Benioff first reached out to McDermott, and the two even discussed a possible acquisition of Salesforce, according to a previous Bloomberg report.

Benioff was in Germany Thursday as part of his European trip that included stops in Paris, London, and the Vatican. During the event, Benioff announced that Salesforce would be investing $1 billion in Germany over the next 5 years, including the launch of its first German data center set to open next month near Frankfurt.

The announcement is in line with Salesforce's continued efforts to expand beyond its core US market, where the majority of its sales occur. Benioff recently said that 90% of enterprise software is bought in just seven countries worldwide.

Benioff's trash talking is nothing new, considering how he often bashes his bigger competitors Oracle and SAP in public. But he's really been busting SAP's chops recently. 

During Salesforce's most recent earnings call, for example, SAP was mentioned 14 times, as Benioff said, "We are really targeting one company to beat and that's SAP...I think we can absolutely do that. I'm personally committed to making that happen. That's my dream."

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