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Salesforce.com Fishes up a 74 Percent Increase for Q3 Net Income

November 19, 2007

Phishing crisis? What phishing crisis? Salesforce.com reported a 74 percent increase in net income for the third quarter, aided by a 48 percent surge in revenues.

 
For the third quarter, the on-demand CRM vendor reported GAAP net income of $6.52 million or $0.05 per share, compared to net income of $339,000, or $0.00 per share in the same quarter last year.
 
On average, thirty-one analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial expected earnings of $0.02 per share for the quarter.
 
Earnings per share for the recent quarter benefited by a gain of approximately $0.01 per share associated with the sale of a minority investment. In addition, results for the latest quarter include approximately $14.2 million in stock-based compensation and approximately $1.4 million in amortization of purchased intangibles related to previously announced acquisitions, as well as a 46 percent tax rate.
 
Total revenues for the quarter rose 48 percent to $192.8 million from $130.1 million in the comparable quarter a year ago. Wall Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $190.6 million for the quarter.
 
CEO Marc Benioff said at this rate, “we expect to push well past the $800 million revenue run rate in Q4, and we are now on track to become the first ever on-demand company to exceed $1 billion in annual revenue in our fiscal ‘09.”
 
On a geographical basis, revenues in the Americas surged 40 percent from the previous-year quarter, while revenues in Europe grew 71 percent. Revenues in Asia rose 92 percent from a year ago.
 
For the first nine months of the fiscal year 2008, the company posted net income of $11 million, or $0.09 per share, compared to net loss of $35,000, or $0.00 per share, a year ago. Year-to-date revenues climbed to $531.8 million from $352.9 million in the previous year.
 
Earlier this month, Salesforce.com was recognized as the “leading” CRM technology provider for capital markets by Securities Industry News and the research firm Financial Insights, an IDC company.
 
The annual listing of the top technology providers within capital markets identifies those companies with dominant market presence in the North American securities industry as determined by the investment community.
 
Salesforce.com was selected based on a survey of 17,000 executives in the investment banking, investment management, wealth management, brokerage, and banking industries. The ranking identifies those companies with the most actual usage and market presence in the industry, not simply brand awareness, and survey participants were to rate the solutions in use at their firm regarding ease of use, reliability, needs met, value, and whether they would recommend it, company officials say.
 
In late October, Salesforce.com Foundation, the philanthropy outreach of Salesforce.com, announced the successes that educational institutions have achieved using donated licenses of Salesforce.com’s on-demand CRM technology through the One Percent Product Donation Program.
 
Bronx Lab School, the Knowledge Is Power Program, Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators, San Jose Education Foundation and USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences are among the more than 2,500 nonprofits and educational institutions around the world using Salesforce.com technology as a result of the program.
 
David Sims is a contributing editor for ContactCenterSolutions. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.



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