Remember the first episode of Schitt’s Creek where Johnny Rose, the billionaire, reveals he bought a town for his son as a joke? It got some of us wondering if anybody would ever do that in real life. Turns out, something similar is happening in Hawaii, where Salesforce CEO is buying up big chunks of land worth millions of dollars. However, while the fictional character Rose had a reason to buy up an entire town and boasted about it in the first episode, Benioff is tight-lipped about his acquisitions.
An investigative report by Dara Kerr for NPR revealed that Benioff has bought at least 38 chunks of land in Hawaii through several anonymous companies since 2000. Even though none of the documentation has Benioff’s name, he isn’t disputing any of it, Kerr added.
Salesforce CEO is buying chunks of Hawaii
The report adds that Benioff bought more than 600 acres in total in Hawaii. In Waimea, he got 29 pieces of land, which is over 580 acres, and nine more pieces, about 25 acres, at beach resorts. One of his coastal properties even goes around a whole public beach. All of this land put together is worth almost USD 100 million.
That’s not all, Benioff is even paying above market value for some pieces of land and the residents in the area are concerned that due to this, housing costs for them would go up.
Even though the residents of Hawaii seem to be concerned about Benioff’s purchasing, they refused to be named in the report. Derr also reported that nobody seems to know what is going on and what is the reason behind the purchases.
She also revealed how Benioff’s demeanor undergoes a shift when has was questioned about the properties held within the anonymous LLCs. His speech quickened, and he nervously began fidgeting with a piece of paper clutched in his hand, Kerr added. In addition to this, his advisor intervened during the interview and suggested a postponement of the discussion to a later time.
However, Kerr added that amidst the hesitation, Benioff did share some insights. He mentioned owning a private ranch equipped with ten horses, where a local family grazes their cattle. Additionally, he disclosed having family members residing in the area and revealed plans to initiate a community meeting center.
But apart from this, there is no clarity about the reasons behind these purchases.
The NPR reporter also revealed how Benioff kept bringing up her personal details in the interview and seemed to know a lot about her. When she tried clicking photographs of a property owned by him from outside, she was stopped by two of his employees and was accused of “snooping around.”
When Benioff went on a digital detox trip
Last year, the Salesforce boss was making headlines when he revealed that he went on a “digital detox trip” after firing thousands of employees. Salesforce fired around 7,000 employees last year which accounted for 10 percent of its workforce at the time.
While talking to The New York Times, Benioff had said back then that he went on a 10 day ‘digital detox’ trip to his favourite place, French Polynesia, after the layoffs announcement.
“We’re so addicted to our devices (at least I am) that it’s very freeing to leave them all behind for a while!” Benioff told The New York Times over text.
The report also mentioned that after the layoffs, he held a virtual company meeting in which he spoke for about two hours. Terming the meeting as a ‘bad idea’, Benioff said, “We were trying to explain the inexplicable.”
He added, “It’s hard to have a call like that with such a large group and have it be effective, and we’ve paid the price for that.”
Published By:
Divyanshi Sharma
Published On:
Feb 29, 2024
