Get ready for a big 2004… as expected Salesforce.com has filed their S-1. Salesforce.com and Google are, of course, the two big IPOs that everyone is counting on to bring back the tech market. I would expect Google to file shortly as these two events occuring at the same time will make both stronger because the market will see a trend: strong, *profitable* tech firms
Salesforce.com of San Francisco, a provider of online customer management services, filed on Thursday go public.
In the latest sign the IPO market is picking up steam, the San Francisco company said it plans to raise up to $115 million in an initial public offering.
Tech observers had long touted Salesforce.com, which sells software online for sharing customer information, as one of the hottest IPO prospects in technology — along with Google — to go public as the tech economy shows signs of a rebound.
By providing its service online instead of selling it as a software product, Salesforce.com has made waves as a potential threat to traditional leaders in software for customer relationship management such as Siebel Systems, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Oracle.
Salesforce.com targets customers who might no be able afford the pricey software installations of the large traditional software makers.
But while Salesforce.com may be gaining momentum, the financials it disclosed in its registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show just how small it remains compared to its rivals.
The company disclosed that it lost $9.3 million on revenues of $50.9 million for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2003. That compares with a loss of $29.2 million on revenues of $22.4 million the previous year.
However, for the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the company says it turned a profit of $4.6 million on revenues of $65.9 million.
1. http://marketingplaybook.com/000947.html
Another typical Drag Race move, this time from the bottom up. Saleforce.com made much of its name by attacking the big guy in the category, Siebel.
This put them on the map, and given their target and thier offering it was very hard for Siebel to respond, just when things were getting hard for them. How could they without just validating Salesforce.com in the process.
Now that they are going public (see Jason Calacanis' and Steve Gillmor's comments) things may get tougher for them. Especially, as reported in the NYT, Marc Benioff continues to have trouble keeping his mouth shut during the quiet period.
Posted at 4:38AM on Dec 19th 2005 by johnza