I recently attended Salesforce.com's (NYSE: CRM) annual conference, Dreamforce. The place was packed, with nearly 10,000 people. The atmosphere was certainly an antidote to the grimness in the tech community.
Then again, this week Salesforce.com announced its quarterly results -- and they were particularly strong (especially in light of the size of the company). Revenues came to $276 million, up 43% over the past year. Earnings spiked 60% to $0.08 per share and there were 4,100 new customers.
At the conference, the big message was "the cloud" (in fact, Salesforce.com refers to itself as " the enterprise cloud computing company"). Essentially, the company is positioning itself as the key platform for business software, which is completely web-based.
Interestingly enough, this appears to be attractive to cash-strapped customers. After all, there are no large up-front costs. Moreover, there are no ongoing costs for things like servers. Another key benefit is customization (which is done through Force.com).
Salesforce.com also is well capitalized and has $805 million in the bank. In other words, the company has the wherewithal to continue its growth ramp. For example, Salesforce.com is moving more aggressively into global markets, such as in Asia.
For fiscal year 2010, Salesforce.com forecasts revenues of $1.35 billion to $1.36 billion, which is up from 2009's guidance of $1.07 billion to $1.07 billion. So, despite the global slowdown, it looks like Salesforce.com will continue to post relatively strong growth.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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