Remote Work Continues Increasing, Slack CEO Says; Stock Down After Q1 Report

Remote work “will be a much bigger part of the working world,” said Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on a fiscal Q1 investor call Thursday evening. Business leaders are “beginning to realize” the benefits of “offering a more fluid work environment, blending offices and remote work,” he said. COVID-19's “all-at-once shift” to work-from-home mandates “concentrated multiple quarters of Slack adoption into a few weeks,” he said. Revenue grew 50% from the year-earlier quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Allen Shim. “The transition to work-from-home was obviously a major tailwind this quarter and we expect net new customer additions to moderate through the remainder of the year.” There are “potential headwinds for our business,” the CFO said. Slack draws about 25% of its business from companies with fewer than 100 employees, he said. Within that base, “we saw churn trend a bit higher than historical norms in March and April,” he said. The stock closed 14% lower Friday at $32.56.