DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Salesforce.com Inc.'s (CRM) fiscal fourth-quarter net income
surged 86% on subscription and support-revenue growth and improved
margins.
Following the strong results, shares were up 10% to $30.90 in
after-hours trading.The stock has lost about half its value since
September.
Salesforce.com's results topped analysts' estimates, as some
analysts were concerned that the fast-growing online
business-services company could face lower renewal rates due to
layoffs and economic weakness. Earlier this month, the departures
of President and Chief Strategy Officer Steve Cakebread and two
sales-related executives raised red flags about the company's
performance.
For the period ended Jan. 31, Salesforce.com reported net income
of $13.8 million, or 11 cents a share, up from $7.4 million, or 6
cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue grew by 34% to $289.6 million amid subscription and
support-revenue growth.
In November, the company projected earnings of 6 cents to 7
cents a share on revenue of about $284 million to $285 million.
Gross margin rose to 79.7% from 78.5%.
The company's paying customer base grew by about 7% to
55,400.
Salesforce.com expects fiscal first-quarter net income of about
10 cents to 11 cents a share on revenue of $304 million to $305
million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average forecast net
income of 10 cents a share on revenue of $305 million.
For the year, the company sees net income of 54 cents to 55
cents and lowered its revenue view to $1.3 billion to $1.33 billion
from November's $1.35 billion to $1.36 billion.
Last last year, Salesforce.com formed separate partnerships with
Internet company Google Inc. (GOOG) and social-networking site
Facebook, underlining growing competition in cloud-computing
services, the growing use of the Internet to access both databases
and software applications hosted by service providers.
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5285;
john.kell@dowjones.com