By Dawn Kawamoto
Friday, November 21 2008 10:35 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62048477,00.htm

Salesforce.com announced Thursday a 43 percent increase in third-quarter revenue, beating Wall Street's expectations.

Shares of Salesforce.com rose about 11 percent in after-hours trading to US$25.30 a share. It closed the regular trading session at US$22.83 a share, up nearly 4 percent.

In the period ending October 31, revenue reached US$276 million, fueled by growth in the company's subscription and support business. Wall Street had been expecting Salesforce.com to generate US$273.5 million, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The online customer relationship management (CRM) software developer posted net income of US$10.1 million, or 8 cents a share, for the quarter, up from US$6.5 million a year ago. That beat analysts' expectations of 7 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

"In the third quarter, we continued to add customers at the same record level we did last quarter, at a time when the traditional enterprise software world was retrenching," Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com CEO, said in a statement.

Indeed. Enterprise software applications giant SAP shook the industry to the core, when it issued its third-quarter results, posting a decline in profits and yanking its projections of how it would perform for the rest of the year.

Salesforce.com, however, issued its fiscal fourth-quarter 2009 guidance for Wall Street, as well as its expectations for fiscal year 2010. The online customer relationship management software developer projected its fourth-quarter revenue will fall short of analysts' current expectations.

The company expects to generate US$284 million to US$285 million in revenue for the quarter. That is below Wall Street's current forecast of US$289.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters. And the CRM developer anticipates earning 6 cents to 7 cents a share.

The company anticipates it will post revenue of US$1.35 billion to US$1.36 billion for the full fiscal year of 2010.

This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.