On its face, the fiscal fourth quarter was lackluster for Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). There was a net loss of $61.9 million, or $0.19 per share. Revenues were up 10.5% to $478.2 million.

But, then again, this is a seasonly slow quarter. Plus, the guidance made up for things. That is, Intuit sees next quarter's revenues at $480 million to $492 million, with a net loss of $0.11 to $0.14 per share.

Actually, Intuit is in the midst of a major transition – from shrink-wrap software to on-demand offerings. In fact, the company is pushing aggressively into free products (which are monetized by add-ons and premium upgrades). For example, Intuit plans to launch FinanceWorks, which is a powerful web-based financial planning platform. The goal is to migrate users to services like bill payment and online banking.

Intuit is also getting traction with its recent acquisitions, such as with ECHO and Homestead. In fact, with Homestead, there's a big opportunity to cross-sell websites to Intuit's four million QuickBooks user base.

For the long haul, Intuit wants to invest more resources into two main categories: global and healthcare. Actually, the company is looking to Asia for growth opportunities.

And, so far in today's trading, Intuit's shares are up 4.7% to $31.46.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

By all accounts, Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is on its way to being a legendary software company. Based on the latest quarterly results, announced Wednesday after the close, the revenues are on track to reach $1 billion.

The company also continues to grow at a blistering rate. In Q2, revenues surged 49% to $263.1 million. Net income came to $10 million, or $0.08 per share. Actually, for the past 12 months, Salesforce.com generated about $270 million in operating cash flow. In all, there is $823 million in the bank.

Q2 saw the addition of roughly 4,100 new customers for a total of 47,700. What's more, Salesforce.com continues to get traction with its existing major customers, such as Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Citi (NYSE: C) and Canon. It certainly helps that the company has a highly customizable platform (known as force.com).

Something else: Salesforce.com announced the acquisition of InStranet, which develops knowledge-based management systems for call centers. There has been much demand for such offerings, so why not buy a leading company in the space? Salesforce.com considers the market opportunity to be about $3 billion.

The issue? Well, the deal will mean a 5 cents charge per share for the full-year.

That's not appetizing to Wall Street. So far in today's trading, Salesforce.com's shares are down 15% to $55.31.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Before starting Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) in 1999, Marc Benioff was already a veteran of the traditional software world. He spent 13 years at Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and even had a stint at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), where he programmed in assembler language. In fact, he started a software company – Liberty Software – when he was only 15 years.

But, of course, Salesforce.com is his biggest achievement and so far it has disrupted the industry. Basically, he has evangelized the virtues of using the Web to deliver software, as well as used the subscription business model rather than the up-front licensing fees. Benioff calls this "The End of Software."

Well, last week, Salesforce.com reported its Q1 results. For the most part, the growth is continuing apace. Revenues surged 52% to $248 million and operating cash flow came to $84 million. There were 2,600 new customers, with the total at 43,600.

A key to success has been integration with various platforms such as Microsoft's NASDAQ: MSFT). Salesforce.com also recently bolstered its partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) by seamlessly integrating its Office-like apps.

Another key is Salesforce.com's extensive infrastructure that handles huge amounts of transactions. The company plans to build its first international data center in Singapore.

The growth of on-demand software is surging in Asia. According to a Springboard Research report, the market is expected to reach $1.16 billion by 2010, representing a 66% annual growth rate. Salesforce.com is likely to be a big beneficiary of this major trend.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Human resources can be kind of boring (except when there are lawsuits). And it is often an area that is largely neglected in terms of the budget. Yet this is not stopping venture capitalists from investing in the space.

The latest funding in the space is a $22.5 million round for Authoria, which "provides talent management solutions," according to the company's website. It's the firm's fifth round. The investors include Horizon Technology Finance, Velocity Financial Group, Menlo Ventures, Austin Ventures and Van Wagoner Capital Management.

It does help that Authoria takes an on-demand approach. That is, the technology is delivered via the Web, which tends to be cheaper and easier. More importantly, it's a red-hot trend in tech, as seen with Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) and Taleo Corp. (NASDAQ: TLEO).

It's not clear if Authoria is profitable, but the company says that its bookings surged 40% for the first half of this year.

With a plethora of IPO filings for on-demand software – which include companies like NetSuite – we'll probably see Authoria take the same path at some point.

If you want to check out other venture capital fundings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Traditional software companies are scrambling to deal with the Internet. Take Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE), which is ramping its on-demand offerings.

In fact, today the company announced that it has snapped up Virtual Ubiquity. The company operates Buzzword, which is a web-based word processor and collaboration platform. The financial details were not disclosed.

It certainly helped that Buzzword has adopted a variety of Adobe technologies, such as Flash and Flex. Interestingly enough, Adobe invested in the firm a year ago.

So is Adobe trying to take on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Office? Actually, I don't think so. Hey, if anything, Adobe understands Microsoft very well – and also realizes that there is still a lot of opportunity in the graphics/design market. Instead, I think Adobe is trying to use new technologies to improve its core strengths.

I had a chance to talk to Frank Zamani, who is the CEO of Caspio (which operates an on-demand web application platform). According to him:

"As Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL)'s Larry Ellison says, in the future there will be only a handful of very large software companies. Adobe is certainly going to be one of them. According to Triple Tree, the SaaS (software as a service) market by 2009 will be 40% of the software market. The question is whether Adobe is going to leverage its fantastic brand name to expand into SaaS. This acquisition demonstrates that they are thinking in that direction. It will be interesting to watch if they will stick to document management or embark on a broader SaaS strategy."

Also, if you want to check out other acquisition deals, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

This week, I had a chance to talk to Michael Braun, a veteran of the tech world. Back in 1981, he helped to launch the original IBM (NYSE: IBM) PC. He has also been the CEO of three Silicon Valley companies.

His latest gig is the CEO of Intacct, which develops on-demand financial management systems for small and midsize businesses. It has about 2,000 customers so far.

While on board for only five months, Braun has taken swift action. He has retained key managers and board members. Moreover, he got $14 million in a venture capital round. The investors include Sigma Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Emergence Capital Partners. Emergence also invested in Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), which is the premier on-demand company.

"The venture round was fairly quick," said Braun. "The investors realize the big market opportunity in providing financial applications. We are allowing QuickBooks' users to graduate from entry-level accounting."

Intacct's applications have proved to be extremely sticky, with a retention rate of 99%. Says Braun, "With on-demand, we are seeing a major platform shift. If you look at the history of these kinds of changes, it's often the new players that dominate the markets. And, we are also in one of the biggest categories of business software."

To see other recent venture capital fundings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.