Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based SaaS company founded by former Oracle exec Marc Benioff in 1999. Mr. Benioff founded the company with 3 partners who will remain active in management until nearly 2020. Larry Elison, a co-founder of Oracle, is a noteworthy early investor who helped propel the company to its success. The company is a leader in CRM or customer relationship management and is largely responsible for the proliferation of digitized CRM solutions that is ongoing today.
The company was not immune to the DotCom bubble bursting and had to cut back its workforce and plans but the event is nothing but a blip on the radar now. Even then, the company could sustain a hyper-growth rate that saw revenue skyrocket from $0 in 1999 to over $100 million by the end of 2003. The company held its IPO in 2004 and raised $110 million. The hypergrowth continued until 2014 driven by the growing recognition among C-suite executives that digital CRM was the path to accelerated revenue and earnings growth.
The company made multiple small acquisitions in the period leading up to 2014, but it was then that investment in other technology accelerated. Total spending in 2016 topped $5 billion and led to the acquisition of Slack in 2020. The company was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, instantly becoming the largest technology company in the index. The Slack acquisition came under some criticism due to the elevated cost the company paid. The track record of growth that includes sustained sequential growth through the end of 2022 put an end to the criticism.
Today, Salesforce.com provides customer relationship management technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. It is the 1st cloud stock to reach $1 billion in revenue, hitting that target in 2009. It is the world’s largest enterprise-level software provider and the 61st-largest company by market cap. In regards to US businesses, it is ranked 136th on the Forbes Fortune 500 list for 2022 when revenue topped $7.7 billion.
The company offers its services via the Customer 360 platform. The platform is designed to deliver connected experiences for a business's customers in a way that delivers sales. Revenue is generated in 2 channels that include Sales and Service. The Sales offering stores data, monitors leads and tracks traffic progression through the sales funnel. It can forecast and provide other analytics as well as deliver quotes, contracts and invoices.
The Service segment allows companies to provide personalized services and support at scale. Scale is the fundamental quality that drives Salesfoce.com’s success because it has been able to scale and aid its clients when they scale. Among Service’s many offerings is the ability to create apps with a drag-and-drop builder tool. This segment also includes Slack which permits easy communication among business associates.
Salesforce.com Ventures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Salesforce.com. It is in business to invest in start-up and early growth phase businesses and has invested more than $5 billion since 2009.
