November 15th, 2006
Salesforce.com subscribers eclipse 500,000 mark
Web 2.0 poster child Salesforce.com seems to be humming along nicely. The company reported 556,000 paying subscribers for the fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31. That's up from 495,000 as of July 31 and 438,000 as of April 30.
Historically, Salesforce revises its paying subscriber tally down once its finalized, but it's safe to say the company broke through the 500,000 mark.
The company's earnings and outlook were roughly in line or better than estimates. Salesforce.com reported break even net income under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for the fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31. Backing out charges, the company reported earnings of 6 cents a share. Revenue came in at $130 million, up 57 percent from a year ago. According to Thomson Financial, Salesforce was expected to report 5 cents a share and sales of $129 million. The outlook for fiscal 2007 and 2008 was slightly ahead of estimates.
Other notable items:
–Salesforce.com has nearly doubled its research and development spending to $31.3 million for the nine months ended Oct. 31 compared to $16.3 million for the same period in 2005.
–Marketing and sales expenses accounted for 51 percent of revenue for the nine months ended Oct. 31 compared to 49 percent a year ago.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Smart Planet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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