Salesforce Revenue Grows By 34%

Sites include Salesforce.com . Published on September 9th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Who says bulkiness doesn’t translate into power and speed? Salesforce is proving that it does, and after a year or two of relentless acquisitions, the business services company is reporting a 34% growth in revenue.

According to the earnings announcement, Salesforce saw revenues climb to $732 million—the biggest climb year-on-year that the company has seen in quite a while. All the proverbial cylinders seem to be firing as subscription revenue grew to $687 million. Professional services revenue grew to $44 million.

The company has an operating cash flow of $136 million, not enough to make another high profile acquisition but with $1 billion in cash and cash equivalents sitting in the coffers, anything is possible. CEO Marc Benioff helped to put the performance in perspective: “Our second quarter revenue growth was outstanding at 34% in dollars and 37% in constant currency. Salesforce.com’s social enterprise strategy is enabling companies to connect with customers, partners, and employees in completely new ways – and it’s creating new opportunities for their growth and ours.”

There’s still work to be done though; the 34% growth in revenue hasn’t outpaced the ballooning costs of promoting the company’s growing line of products and a net loss of $9.8 million was also reported for the quarter. Investors will be happy to know that the earnings outlook for the next quarter is positive and as the pieces fit more and more together, they should start delivering higher revenues.