by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Salesforce.com posted revenue for its fiscal third quarter ended October 31 of $330.5 million, up 20 percent year over year, and ahead of the Street at $324.4 million. EPS was in line with estimates at 16 cents.
On Tuesday, Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, unveiled Apps.Gov, a Web site where federal agencies will able to buy so-called cloud computing applications and services that have been approved by the government to replace more costly and cumbersome computing services at their own locations.
by Jacob Goldstein, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The tech industry’s push into health care continues today, with word that Salesforce.com is investing in Practice Fusion, a closely held company in the electronic medical records business.
In recent weeks, some big-name tech execs have said that they think the economy has hit a bottom. On Wednesday and Thursday, some smaller—although still pretty large—software companies reported earnings, and their CEOs were a little less rosy about the end of the recession.
A trade organization whose members include IBM, Microsoft and a laundry list of other tech companies announced this week that it has formed a group to create standards for a way of accessing information over the Internet known as “cloud computing.”
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Take profits in Salesforce.com, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Nemeroff advises.
Nemeroff this morning cut his rating on CRM to Sell from Hold, noting that the shares at last night’s close of $37.38 were more than $10 above his $27 target price.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Yesterday’s rumors about a potential acquisition by Oracle of Red Hat have apparently faded, but Larry Ellison’s appetite for doing deals is never sated. Whether or not Oracle decides to take a run at Red Hat, it is not going out on a limb to suggest that at some point Ellison is going to get the itch and make more acquisitions.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Salesforce.com shares are on the rise today ahead of the company’s release tomorrow after for its fiscal fourth quarter ended January. The Street consensus is for revenue of $285.2 million and profits of seven cents a share.
I’ve got to confess that for the last 10 years I’ve largely ignored Salesforce.com. I knew it was growing through sales of its service, a very fancy Rolodex that helps companies keep track of customers and prospects. And I knew it evangelized the idea that applications for big companies can be delivered through Web pages rather than as software run in a company’s own data center.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Salesforce.com (CRM) posted Q3 results that were slightly ahead of the Street, and an outlook for Q4 and fiscal 2010 that, while not spectacular, at least did not significantly miss expectations.
For the fiscal third quarter ended October 31, the company posted revenue of $276 million and profits of 8 cents a share; the Street had [...]
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
So, I’m skeptical about this, but in the interest of keeping you fully informed, here goes: Salesforce.com (CRM) shares are trading sharply higher today, in a move TheFlyOnTheWall.com asserts is due to “renewed takeover chatter.”
Salesforce.com shares are trading higher this morning after Citigroup’s Brent Thill raised his rating on the stock to Buy from Hold, while maintaining a $70 price target. Thill notes that the stock had dropped 13 percent in the three days after the company reported earnings, “even after short-covering.” He notes that the company trades at 24.1 times calendar 2009 free cash flow per share, a reasonable valuation given expected 30 percent annual growth through 2010.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Following a beat-and-raise quarter last night for online software vendor Salesforce’s (CRM), the rewards are not what you might expect, with the shares down $11.60, or 17.8 percent, at $53.73. The company’s forecast for a profit of 34 cents to 35 cents for the current quarter, excluding its cost to acquire privately held Instranet, was unimpressive to the Street.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Half-a-billion-dollar (market cap) Rightnow Technologies (RNOW), which sells software over the Web to automate customer support, could be threatened by this morning’s announcement from Salesforce.com (CRM) that it’s buying privately held Instranet for software to expand in the call center market, according to a report out today from JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Salesforce.com (CRM), which is mainly known for software that helps sales executives track and manage customer prospects, today said it paid $31.5 million in cash for Instranet, a 10-year-old company based in Chicago that makes software to improve product support.
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