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Salesforce CEO: We're doing great because everyone else in CRM sucks

Loafing competitors are 'horrible,' says Benioff

Chalk up another big quarter for SaaS icon Salesforce.com, as the cloud CRM provider saw revenues jump by 26 per cent year-over-year.

CEO Marc Benioff said the company was on pace for its first $10bn full-year revenues as it turned in a solid second quarter for fiscal year 2018:

  • Revenues were $2.56bn, up 26 per cent from Q2 2017.
  • Net income was $17.7m, down from $229.6m last year when Salesforce benefited from a favorable tax return. Income from operations (before taxes) this quarter was $50.8m, compared to $32.5m in the year-ago quarter.
  • Earnings per share (non-GAAP) were $0.33, topping analyst estimates of $0.32.
  • Subscription and support revenues were $2.37bn, up 26 per cent year-over-year.
  • Professional services and 'other' revenues added up to $193m, an increase of 28 per cent from Q2 2017.

"Our continued momentum as the leader in CRM, the fastest-growing segment of our industry, combined with more than $15 billion in billed and unbilled deferred revenue, puts us well on the path to $20 billion and beyond," Benioff said of the numbers.

Never one to hold back, Benioff also made time during the call to take a swipe at rival CRM vendors, who he says have all but given up in the market, to the benefit of his company.

"Our competitors have done a horrible job in the last few years, a lot of them have really abandoned the CRM market," the Salesforce founder and chief executive said.

"We've talked to analysts, we're shocked, they're shocked at how these companies have walked out of the CRM market."

Benioff also noted Salesforce's efforts to expand its cloud services and the big investment the company made in machine learning and AI with its Einstein platform, as well as its efforts to create a new crop of third-party developers for its service.

Despite the upbeat predictions from Benioff and his executive team, Wall Street was lukewarm in after-hours trading, as Salesforce shares were down slightly at $91.82. ®

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