Salesforce sales, fourth

Salesforce.com released figures for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007, which ended January 31, yesterday and the spin immediately went both ways on the story.

“The fourth quarter was remarkable for its strength across all business segments, products, and geographies,” said Salesforce.com CEO/chairman Marc Benioff, “best demonstrated by our adding 90,000 net new subscribers, and 2,700 net new customers.”

Benioff went on to mention the single largest Salesforce implementation, made in the fourth quarter involving “25,000 subscribers – the largest on-demand CRM customer ever.” (More on just whence the 25,000-subscriber base comes a bit further down.)

Stats regarding fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2007 included:

• Quarter four revenue was $144.2 million, an increase of 58 percent over fourth quarter 2006 and 11 percent over third quarter 2007.

• Subscription and support revenues were $132.1 million, an increase of 60 percent over fourth quarter 2006 and an increase of 12 percent over third quarter 2007.

• For the full year, the company reported revenue of approximately $497.1 million, an increase of 60 percent from the prior year.

• Subscription and support revenues were $451.6 million for the year, an increase of 61 percent, while professional services revenue rose 56 percent to finish at $45.4 million.

Now sure, all those figures look fine, but along comes another pair of rather more unfortunate numbers:

• Quarter four GAAP earnings per share were reported as “break-even.”

• For the full year, GAAP earnings per share were “breakeven.”

Forbes online edition reported that “Shares of customer relationship management software provider salesforce.com Inc. closed down less than 2 percent Thursday, after a day of volatile trading in which investors digested the company’s fourth-quarter report and 2008 guidance.” The Forbes piece noted that “fourth-quarter profit fell sharply on higher costs but compared favorably with Wall Street expectations, as did sales, which surged 58 percent to $144 million. Subscriber growth also was strong…” However, “investors hoped for more from the company’s 2008 forecast.”

Those With The Salesforce also announced that they were “affirming the increased full year revenue outlook [the company] provided on December 12, 2007, with revenue expected to be approximately $710 million to approximately $720 million.”

For the full fiscal year 2008, stock-based compensation expense is expected to be approximately $60 to $70 million.

A recording of the conference call in which the fourth quarter fiscal 2007 results are discussed is available at the Salesforce.com website or by dialing 800.642.1687 or 706.645.9291, passcode 8722215, from now through March 8.

Now about that “mystery Salesforce mega-customer,” as ZDNet’s Colin Barker dubbed it…

Who exactly was it that propped up Salesforce.com’s revenue just enough to allow the numbers not to be emphatically labeled a disaster? The revelation of the customer by Benioff, writes Barker, “prompted analysts to wonder how much impact such a large customer would have on Salesforce’s revenue for next year, because large customers use the company’s customer relationship management software at a heavily discounted rate.”

Barker then does some wondering himself, flipping through Salesforce customers such as Cisco, Dell, Deutsche Bank, Procter & Gamble and Societe Generale.

And CRMchump continues to think on it, too.