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Salesforce Announces Fiscal 2016 Third Quarter Results

Salesforce Announces Fiscal 2016 Third Quarter ResultsInitiates FY17 Revenue Guidance of $8.0 Billion to $8.1 Billion • Quarterly Revenue of $1.7

Salesforce Announces Fiscal 2016 Third Quarter Results

Initiates FY17 Revenue Guidance of $8.0 Billion to $8.1 Billion

• Quarterly Revenue of $1.71 Billion, up 24% Year-Over-Year, 27% in Constant Currency
• Deferred Revenue of $2.85 Billion, up 28% Year-Over-Year, 30% in Constant Currency
• Unbilled Deferred Revenue of Approximately $6.7 Billion, up 24% Year-Over-Year
• Initiates Fourth Quarter Revenue Guidance of $1.782 Billion to $1.792 Billion
• Raises FY16 Revenue Guidance to $6.64 Billion to $6.65 Billion

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Nov. 18, 2015 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, today announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended October 31, 2015.

“Salesforce delivered yet another exceptional quarter with 27% constant currency growth in revenue and 30% constant currency growth in deferred revenue,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “I’m delighted to announce that we expect to deliver our first $8 billion year during our fiscal year 2017, which puts us well on the path to reach $10 billion faster than any other enterprise software company.”

“In Q3, we delivered strong top and bottom line growth, expanding non-GAAP operating margin by 221 basis points, which is our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement,” said Mark Hawkins, CFO, Salesforce. “For the full fiscal year 2016, we expect to deliver $6.65 billion in revenue at the high end of our range and we are increasing our non-GAAP EPS guidance to 75 cents at the high end of our range.”

Salesforce delivered the following results for its fiscal third quarter 2016:

Revenue: Total revenue was $1.71 billion, an increase of 24% year-over-year, and 27% in constant currency. Subscription and support revenues were $1.60 billion, an increase of 24% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenues were $116 million, an increase of 22% year-over-year.

Earnings per Share: GAAP loss per share was ($0.04), and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.21.

Cash: Cash generated from operations for the third quarter was $118 million, a decrease of 4% year-over-year. Cash generated from operations for the nine months year-to-date was $1.15 billion, an increase of 37% year-over-year. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at $2.30 billion.

Deferred Revenue: Deferred revenue on the balance sheet as of October 31, 2015 was $2.85 billion, an increase of 28% year-over-year, and 30% in constant currency. Unbilled deferred revenue, representing business that is contracted but unbilled and off balance sheet, ended the quarter at approximately $6.7 billion, up 24% year-over-year.

As of November 18, 2015, the company is initiating revenue, earnings per share, and deferred revenue guidance for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016. In addition, the company is raising its full fiscal year 2016 revenue and earnings per share guidance previously provided on August 20, 2015. The company is also initiating revenue guidance for its fiscal year 2017.

Q4 FY16 Guidance: Revenue is projected to be approximately $1.782 billion to $1.792 billion, an increase of 23% to 24% year-over-year.

GAAP loss per share is expected to be in the range of ($0.09) to ($0.08), while diluted non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.18 to $0.19.

On balance sheet deferred revenue growth is projected to be approximately 23% to 24% year-over-year.

Full Year FY16 Guidance: Revenue is projected to be approximately $6.64 billion to $6.65 billion, an increase of 24% year-over-year.

GAAP loss per share is expected to be in the range of ($0.12) to ($0.11), while diluted non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.74 to $0.75.

Operating cash flow growth is projected to be approximately 24% to 25% year-over-year.

Full Year FY17 Guidance: Revenue for the company’s full fiscal year 2017 is projected to be approximately $8.0 billion to $8.1 billion, an increase of 20% to 22% year-over-year. The company will provide its expectations for FY17 GAAP EPS, non-GAAP EPS, and operating cash flow when it announces its fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2016 results in February 2016.

The following is a per share reconciliation of GAAP earnings per share to diluted non-GAAP earnings per share guidance for the next quarter and full fiscal year:



For additional information regarding non-GAAP financial measures see the reconciliation of results and related explanations below.

Quarterly Conference Call

Salesforce will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. (PT) / 5:00 p.m. (ET) today to discuss its financial results with the investment community. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the Salesforce Investor Relations website at www.salesforce.com/investor. A live dial-in is available domestically at 866-901-SFDC or 866-901-7332 and internationally at 706-902-1764, passcode 66984466. A replay will be available at (800) 585-8367 or (855) 859-2056 until midnight (ET) Dec. 17, 2015.

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"Safe harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements about our financial results, which may include expected GAAP and non-GAAP financial and other operating and non-operating results, including revenue, net income (loss), earnings per share, operating cash flow growth, deferred revenue growth, expected revenue run rate, expected tax rates, stock-based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased intangibles, amortization of acquired leases and debt discount, non-cash interest expense and gains/losses on the conversions of debt, gains/losses on the sales of land and building improvements, termination of operating lease, shares outstanding, and changes in deferred tax asset valuation allowances. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves 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; the company’s rate of growth and anticipated revenue run rate, including the company’s ability to convert deferred revenue and unbilled deferred revenue into revenue and, as appropriate, cash flow, and ability to maintain continued growth of deferred revenue and unbilled deferred revenue; 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 previous and 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 company’s ability to realize benefits from strategic partnerships and strategic investments; the emerging markets in which the company operates; 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; factors affecting the company’s outstanding convertible notes and revolving credit facility; fluctuations in the number of shares we have outstanding and the price of such shares; foreign currency exchange rates; collection of receivables; interest rates; factors affecting our deferred tax assets and ability to value and utilize them, including the timing of when we once again achieve profitability on a pre-tax basis; the potential negative impact of indirect tax exposure; the risks and expenses associated with the company’s real estate and office facilities space; 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. 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.

© 2015 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, AppExchange, Salesforce1, and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other brands featured herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures: This press release includes information about non-GAAP earnings per share, non-GAAP tax rates, and non-GAAP free cash flow (collectively the “non-GAAP financial measures”). These non-GAAP financial measures are measurements of financial performance that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and computational methods may differ from those 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. Management uses both GAAP and non-GAAP measures when planning, monitoring, and evaluating the company’s performance.

The primary purpose of using non-GAAP measures is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to investors who wish to consider the impact of certain non-cash or non-recurring items, such as certain one-time charges, on the company’s operating performance. While strategic decisions, such as those related to the issuance of equity awards (resulting in stock-based compensation), mergers and acquisitions, real estate activity or the issuance of debt securities, are made to further the company’s long-term strategic objectives and impact the company’s statement of operations 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, management believes that supplementing GAAP disclosure with non-GAAP disclosure that excludes items that are not directly related to performance in any particular period provides management and investors with a more complete view of the company’s operational performance. Further, to the extent that other companies use similar methods in calculating non-GAAP measures, the provision of supplemental non-GAAP information can allow for a comparison of the company’s relative performance against other companies that also report non-GAAP operating results.

Non-GAAP earnings per share excludes the impact of the following items: stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, amortization of acquired leases, the net amortization of debt discount on the company’s convertible senior notes, and gains/losses on conversions of the company’s convertible senior notes, gains/losses on sales of land and building improvements, and termination of office leases, as well as income tax adjustments. These items are excluded because the decisions which gave rise to these items were not made to increase revenue in a particular period, but were made for the company’s long-term benefit over multiple periods.

The purpose of the non-GAAP tax rate is to quantify the excluded tax adjustments and the tax consequences associated with the above excluded items. The company reports a projected long-term tax rate to eliminate the effects of non-recurring and period-specific items, which can vary in size and frequency. This projected long-term non-GAAP tax rate could be subject to change in the future for a variety of reasons, such as, for example, significant changes in the company’s geographic earnings mix including acquisition activity or fundamental tax law changes in major jurisdictions where the company operates.

Specifically, management is excluding the following items from its non-GAAP earnings per share for Q3 and its non-GAAP estimates for Q4 and FY16:

• Stock-Based Expenses: The company’s compensation strategy includes the use of stock-based compensation to attract and retain 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 and Acquired Leases: The company views amortization of acquisition- and building-related intangible assets, such as the amortization of the cost associated with an acquired company’s research and development efforts, trade names, customer lists and customer relationships, and acquired lease intangibles, as items arising from pre-acquisition activities determined at the time of an acquisition. While these intangible assets are continually evaluated for impairment, amortization of the cost of purchased intangibles is a static expense, one that is 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 $1.15 billion of convertible senior notes due 2018 that were issued in a private placement in March 2013. The imputed interest rate was approximately 2.5% for the convertible notes due 2018, while the actual coupon interest rate of the notes is 0.25%. The difference between the imputed interest expense and the coupon interest expense, net of the interest amount capitalized, 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.

• Non-Cash Gains/Losses on Conversion of Debt: Upon settlement of the company’s convertible senior notes, we attribute the fair value of the consideration transferred to the liability and equity components of the convertible senior notes. The difference between the fair value of consideration attributed to the liability component and the carrying value of the liability as of settlement date is recorded as a non-cash gain or loss on the statement of operations.

• Gain on Sales of Land and Building Improvements: The company views the non-operating gains associated with the sales of the land and building improvements at Mission Bay to be a discrete item.

• Lease Termination Resulting From Purchase of Office Building: The company views the non-cash, one-time gain associated with the termination of its lease at 50 Fremont to be a discrete item.

• Income Tax Effects and Adjustments: During fiscal 2015, the company began to compute and utilize a fixed long-term projected non-GAAP tax rate in order to provide better consistency across the interim reporting periods by eliminating the effects of non-recurring and period-specific items such as changes in the tax valuation allowance and tax effects of acquisitions-related costs, since each of these can vary in size and frequency. When projecting this long-term rate, the company evaluated a three-year financial projection that excludes the direct impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based expenses, amortization of purchased intangibles, amortization of acquired leases, amortization of debt discount, gains/losses on the sales of land and building improvements, gains/losses on conversions of debt, and termination of office leases. The projected rate also assumes no new acquisitions in the three-year period, and takes into account other factors including the company’s current tax structure, its existing tax positions in various jurisdictions and key legislation in major jurisdictions where the company operates. This long-term rate could be subject to change for a variety of reasons, such as significant changes in the geographic earnings mix including acquisition activity, or fundamental tax law changes in major jurisdictions where the company operates. The company re-evaluates this long-term rate on an annual basis unless a significant event may materially affect it. As a result of the recent U.S. Tax Court’s opinion in Altera Corporation’s litigation with the Internal Revenue Service, the company revised its fiscal 2016 non-GAAP tax rate from 36.5 percent to 35.5 percent during the quarter ended October 31, 2015 to account for the related tax impact. The year-to-date tax impact was fully recognized in the company’s Q3 tax provision.

The company defines the non-GAAP measure free cash flow as GAAP net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures. For this purpose, capital expenditures does not include our strategic investments, nor does it include any costs or activities related to our purchase of 50 Fremont land and building, and building in progress – leased facilities.


About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, empowering companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way through the power of CRM + AI + Data + Trust on one unified platform: Einstein 1. For more information visit: www.salesforce.com. 

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit https://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

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