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Salesforce.com announces 43pc revenue rise

Dawn Kawamoto CNET News

Published: 21 Nov 2008 13:34 GMT

Salesforce.com on Thursday announced a 43 percent increase in third-quarter revenue, beating Wall Street's expectations.

Shares of Salesforce.com rose about 11 percent in after-hours trading to $25.30 (£16.90) a share. It closed the regular trading session at $22.83 a share, up nearly four percent.

In the period ending 31 October, revenue reached $276m, fuelled by growth in the company's subscription and support business. Wall Street had been expecting Salesforce.com to generate $273.5m, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The online customer-relationship-management (CRM) software developer posted net income of $10.1m, or eight cents a share, for the quarter, up from $6.5m a year ago. That beat analysts' expectations of seven cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

"In the third quarter, we continued to add customers at the same record level we did last quarter, at a time when the traditional enterprise software world was retrenching," Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com chief executive, said in a statement.

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Enterprise-software-applications giant SAP shook the industry when it issued its third-quarter results, posting a decline in profits and withholding its revenue forecast for the rest of the year.

Salesforce.com, however, issued its fiscal fourth-quarter 2009 guidance for Wall Street, as well as its expectations for fiscal year 2010. The online CRM software developer projected its fourth-quarter revenue will fall short of analysts' current expectations.

The company expects to generate $284m to $285m in revenue for the quarter. That is below Wall Street's current forecast of $289.4m, according to Thomson Reuters. The CRM developer anticipates earning six cents to seven cents a share.

The company anticipates it will post revenue of $1.35bn to $1.36bn for the full fiscal year of 2010.

Credit: Salesforce.com posts 43 percent revenue jump from CNET News