Twitter Cuts Salesforce Bill 75% as More Buyers Scrutinize Software Spending

Twitter last month cut its contract for Salesforce’s customer-management software by 75%, to $5 million a year from $20 million, after reducing its workforce by roughly the same percentage, according to a person with direct knowledge. The move highlights the pain for enterprise software providers as some of their key customers—other technology firms—cut their workforces.

At the same time, top executives of big companies such as Target are taking more control of software purchasing decisions from lower-level managers as they look to cut costs. That’s putting pressure on products such as videoconferencing service Zoom and work-chat app Slack, owned by Salesforce. Both Zoom and Slack must compete with similar services offered as part of larger bundles by Microsoft and Google.