Salesforce.com sets sights on a billion dollars

During the quarterly earnings call today, Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff set his sights on $1 billion in revenue, doubling the current run rate for revenue. "Our goal has always been to become one of the fewer than 25 of software companies to reach $1 billion in annual revenue," Benioff said. "We have an obligation to become one of those companies," he added, citing the need to set an example for the new generation of entrepreneurs. Benioff didn't offer any specifics as to when the seven-year-old company would hit the $1 billion mark.

I'm not sure about the setting an example part, but he does want to continue leading the on demand, software as a service parade, and to stick it to Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. Salesforce.com, along with RightNow, NetSuite, WebEx and dozens of other companies collectively have more than billion dollars in annual revenue, and are legitimizing the sofware as a service model.

Here are the earnings highlights:

• Revenue of $118M, up 64% year-over-year 
• Net paying subscribers rise a record 57,000 to 501,000
  
• Customers in 50 countries and 12 languages
  
• Net customers rise 2,100 to 24,800, up 47% year-over-year 
• GAAP EPS approximately break-even 
• Fully diluted non-GAAP EPS of $0.06 
• Operating cash rises to $30M, up 133% year-over-year

Growth in subscribers came from adding new seats at existing accounts, such as Hitachi and Citrix, and landing Bear Stearns, Benioff said. Activity on the  Salesforce.com  datacenters, topped 3 billion transactions for the quarter, with less than 300 millisecond response time, he added.