Salesforce.com Announces Fiscal Third Quarter Results

First Enterprise Cloud Computing Company to Exceed $1.7 Billion Annual Revenue Run Rate

• Initiates FY12 Revenue Guidance at $1.97 – $2.00 Billion


• Record Quarterly Revenue of $429 Million, up 30% Year-Over-Year


• Operating Cash Flow of $74M, up 108% Year-Over-Year


• Deferred Revenue of $695 million, up 27% Year-Over-Year


• 4,800 Net New Customers in Quarter


• Total Customers at 87,200 up 28% Year-Over-Year

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – November 18, 2010 – Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended October 31, 2010.

“After taking a decade to achieve our first billion dollar year in fiscal 2009, we believe that our strong growth this year will allow us to deliver approximately $2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2012, making salesforce.com the first cloud computing company to achieve that milestone,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com delivered the following results for the third quarter fiscal year 2011:

Revenue: Total Q3 revenue was $429 million, an increase of 30% on a year-over-year basis. Subscription and support revenues were $403 million, an increase of 31% on a year-over-year basis. Professional services and other revenues were $26 million, an increase of 10% on a year-over-year basis.

Earnings per Share: Q3 GAAP diluted earnings per share decreased 6% year-over-year to $0.15, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share increased 14% year-over-year to $0.32. The company’s non-GAAP results exclude the effects of approximately $26 million in stock-based compensation expense, approximately $5 million in amortization of purchased intangibles, and approximately $6 million in non-cash interest expense related to the company’s convertible senior notes. All EPS calculations are based on 137 million diluted shares outstanding during the quarter.

Customers: Net paying customers rose approximately 4,800 during the quarter. The number of total net paying customers at the end of the fiscal third quarter was approximately 87,200. Since October 31, 2009, the company has added approximately 19,300 net paying customers, an increase of approximately 28%.

Cash: Cash from operations for the fiscal third quarter was approximately $74 million, up 108% year-over-year. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at approximately $1.8 billion, an increase of approximately $732 million from the prior year, which includes approximately $500 million in net proceeds from the company’s issuance of convertible senior notes in January 2010.

Deferred Revenue: Deferred revenue on the balance sheet as of October 31, 2010 was $695 million, an increase of 27% on a year-over-year basis.

As of November 18, 2010, salesforce.com is initiating guidance for its fourth quarter, fiscal year 2011. For its fiscal year 2011, the company is updating the guidance provided on August 19, 2010. In addition, the company is initiating revenue guidance for fiscal year 2012.

Q4 FY11 Guidance: Revenue for the company’s fourth quarter is projected to be in the range of approximately $447 million to approximately $449 million.

GAAP diluted EPS is expected to be in the range of approximately $0.06 to approximately $0.07, while non-GAAP diluted EPS in Q4 is expected to be in the range of approximately $0.27 to approximately $0.28. The company’s non-GAAP EPS estimate excludes the effects of stock-based compensation expense, expected to be approximately $35 million, amortization of purchased intangibles related to acquisitions, expected to be approximately $6 million and non-cash interest expense related to the convertible senior notes, expected to be approximately $6 million. EPS estimates assume a GAAP tax rate of 42%, and a non-GAAP tax rate of 38%. All EPS estimates assume an average diluted share count of approximately 140 million shares.

Full Year FY11 Guidance: The company is raising its expected full fiscal year 2011 revenue from the guidance previously provided on August 19, 2010. Revenue for the company’s full fiscal year 2011 is projected to be in the range of approximately $1.647 billion to approximately $1.649 billion.

For the company’s full fiscal year 2011, diluted GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of approximately $0.46 to approximately $0.47, while diluted non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of approximately $1.18 to approximately $1.19. The non-GAAP estimate excludes the effects of stock-based compensation expense, expected to be approximately $114 million, amortization of purchased intangibles related to acquisitions, expected to be approximately $18 million, and non-cash interest expense related to the convertible senior notes, expected to be approximately $23 million. EPS estimates assume a GAAP tax rate of 42%, and a non-GAAP tax rate of 38%. All EPS estimates assume an average diluted share count of approximately 136 million shares.

Full Year FY12 Guidance: The company is initiating revenue guidance for fiscal year 2012 with projected revenue in the range of approximately $1.97 billion to approximately $2.0 billion. The company expects to update this guidance, as well as provide its expectations for FY12 GAAP EPS, when it announces its fourth quarter, fiscal year 2011 results in February, 2011.

The following is a reconciliation of the GAAP diluted EPS to non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year:

Quarterly Conference Call

Salesforce.com will host a conference call to discuss its third quarter fiscal year 2011 results at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. A live audio webcast of the conference call, together with detailed financial information, can be accessed through the company's Investor Relations Web site at http://www.salesforce.com/investor. In addition, an archive of the webcast can be accessed through the same link. Participants who choose to call in to the conference call can do so by dialing domestically 866-901-SFDC or 866-901-7332 and internationally at +1 706-902-1764. A replay will be available at 800-642-1687 or +1 706-645-9291, passcode 21460955, until midnight (Eastern Time) December 17, 2010.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures: This press release includes information about non-GAAP earnings per share and non-GAAP tax rates (collectively the “non-GAAP financial measures”). Non-GAAP earnings estimates exclude the impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based compensation, amortization of purchased intangibles, and the amortization of debt discount on the company’s convertible senior notes, as well as the tax consequences associated with these items. The purpose of the non-GAAP tax rate is to quantify the excluded tax consequences of the excluded expense items. These non-GAAP estimates are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The method used to produce non-GAAP financial measures is not computed according to GAAP and may differ from the methods used by other companies. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP measures and should be read only in conjunction with the company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The primary purpose of these non-GAAP measures is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to investors who wish to consider the impact of certain non-cash items on the company’s operating performance. Non-cash stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, and the amortization of debt discount on the company’s convertible senior notes are being excluded from the company’s FY11 financial results because the decisions which gave rise to these expenses were not made to increase revenue in a particular period, but were made for the company’s long-term benefit over multiple periods. While strategic decisions, such as those to issue stock-based compensation, acquire a company, or issue convertible senior notes, are made to further the company’s long-term strategic objectives and impact the company’s income statement under GAAP measures, these items affect multiple periods and management is not able to change or affect these items in any particular period. As such, supplementing GAAP disclosure with non-GAAP disclosure using the non-GAAP measures provides management with an additional view of operational performance by excluding expenses that are not directly related to performance in any particular period, and management uses both GAAP and non-GAAP measures when planning, monitoring, and evaluating the company’s performance.

In addition, the majority of the company’s industry peers report non-GAAP operating results that exclude certain non-cash or non-recurring items. Management believes that the provision of supplemental non-GAAP information will enable a more complete comparison of the company’s relative performance.

Specifically, management is excluding the following items from its non-GAAP EPS for Q3 and its estimated non-GAAP estimates for Q4 and FY2011:

• Stock-Based Expenses: The company’s compensation strategy is to use stock-based compensation to attract and retain key employees and executives. It is principally aimed at aligning their interests with those of our stockholders and at long-term employee retention, rather than to motivate or reward operational performance for any particular period. Thus, stock-based compensation expense varies for reasons that are generally unrelated to operational decisions and performance in any particular period.


• Amortization of Purchased Intangibles: The company views amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, such as the amortization of an acquired company’s research and development efforts, customer lists and customer relationships, as items arising from pre-acquisition activities. These are costs that are determined at the time of an acquisition. While it is continually viewed for impairment, amortization of the cost is a static expense, one that are not typically affected by operations during any particular period.


• Amortization of Debt Discount: Under GAAP, certain convertible debt instruments that may be settled in cash (or other assets) on conversion are required to be separately accounted for as liability (debt) and equity (conversion option) components of the instrument in a manner that reflects the issuer’s non-convertible debt borrowing rate. Accordingly, for GAAP purposes we are required to recognize imputed interest expense on the company’s $575 million of convertible subordinated notes that were issued in a private placement in January 2010. The imputed interest rate is approximately 5.9%, while the coupon interest rate is 0.75%. The difference between the imputed interest expense and the coupon interest expense is excluded from management’s assessment of the company’s operating performance because management believes that this non-cash expense is not indicative of ongoing operating performance. Management believes that the exclusion of the non-cash interest expense provides investors an enhanced view of the company’s operational performance.


• Income Tax Effects: The company’s estimated non-GAAP effective tax rate is lower than the estimated GAAP effective tax rate due to the exclusion of the expense items described above.

“Safe harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements about expected GAAP revenue and GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 the full fiscal year, and fiscal year 2012, the company’s expected tax rates, stock-based compensation expenses, amortization expenses, and shares outstanding. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the company’s results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.

The risks and uncertainties referred to above include - but are not limited to - risks associated with possible fluctuations in the company’s financial and operating results; rate of growth and anticipated revenue run rate; errors, interruptions or delays in the company’s service or the company’s Web hosting; breaches of the company’s security measures; the financial impact of any future acquisitions; the nature of the company’s business model; the company’s ability to continue to release, and gain customer acceptance of, new and improved versions of the company’s service; successful customer deployment and utilization of the company’s existing and future services; changes in the company’s sales cycle; competition; various financial aspects of the company’s subscription model; unexpected increases in attrition or decreases in new business; the emerging markets in which we operate; unique aspects of entering or expanding in international markets, the company’s ability to hire, retain and motivate employees and manage the company’s growth; changes in the company’s customer base; technological developments; regulatory developments; litigation related to intellectual property and other matters, and any related claims, negotiations and settlements; unanticipated changes in the company’s effective tax rate; fluctuations in the number of shares we have outstanding and the price of such shares; foreign currency exchange rates; interest rates; the company’s plans to build our new global headquarters in San Francisco, California and general developments in the economy, financial markets, and credit markets.

Further information on these and other factors that could affect the company’s financial results is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the company’s Form 10-Q that will be filed for the quarter ended October 31, 2010 and our Form 10-K filed for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2010. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of the company’s website at www.salesforce.com/investor.

Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.