Salesforce.com quarterly revenue rises 38 pct / Salesforce.com adjusted profit tops forecast

 Salesforce.com Inc's quarterly revenue rose 38 percent, helped by increased demand for its web-based sales and marketing software and services.

The company reported a net loss of $61.1 million, or 10 cents per share, for the second quarter ended July 31, compared with a profit of $76.6 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 13 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $1.32 billion from $957.1 million.

Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 12 cents per share on revenue of $1.29 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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MARIA ARMENTAL for Market watch writes: 

Salesforce.com adjusted profit tops forecast

Salesforce.com Inc. swung to a loss in the fiscal second-quarter amid a string of acquisitions as the company seeks to diversify its business with an eye to social media and marketing.

The San Francisco company, which offers online software to automate sales and other functions, again raised its forecast for the year. The company now expects adjusted per-share profit of 50 cents to 52 cents on revenue between $5.34 billion and $5.37 billion. Previously, the company had forecast per-share profit of 49 cents to 51 cents on revenue of $5.30 billion to $5.34 billion.

For the current quarter, Salesforce sees adjusted profit between 12 cents a share and 13 cents a share on revenue of $1.365 billion to $1.370 billion, largely in line with Wall Street's view of 13 cents a share and $1.37 billion in revenue.

Salesforce is considered a pioneer in the cloud-software business but has been hurt by growing competition from more specialized online software companies. In response, Salesforce has sought to expand beyond its traditional strength of software through a series of acquisitions, including online marketer ExactTarget Inc., social media marketer Buddy Media Inc. and social media monitoring company Radian6 Technologies Inc. In July, the company announced its largest deal yet, the acquisition of RelateIQ Inc., which automatically captures data from email, calendars and smartphone calls, in a deal valued around $390 million. [ snip ]  The article continues @ MarketWatchc.com, click here to continue reading....