• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
TechFortune 500

5 Things You Need to Know From Salesforce’s Earnings Call

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 31, 2016, 7:59 PM ET
Key Speakers At 2015 The Dreamforce Conference
Photograph by David Paul Morris—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Salesforce second quarter earnings call was something of a mixed bag.

The business software company’s revenue during the period rose 25% to $2.04 billion from $1.63 billion a year ago. But disappointing third quarter guidance spooked investors, sending shares sliding more than 7% at one point in after-hours trading to $73.49.

For the current quarter, Salesforce (CRM) said it expected earnings of 21 cents to 22 cents per share on revenue of $2.11 billion to $2.21 billion. The problem was that analysts had expected a slightly higher profit of 24 cents per share on revenue of $2.13 billion.

Here’s what else you need to know from the call:

1: It’s all about artificial intelligence.

For those who didn’t get the memo about Einstein, Salesforce’s planned artificial intelligence effort, chief executive Marc Benioff spent quite a bit of time talking very generally about it. Einstein, he said, will be both an AI platform for building new software as well as AI extensions to Salesforce’s existing sales, marketing, and analytics software.

AI’s promise is that the software will figure out what you need even before you ask for it. If a salesperson, for example, wants to track down a hot sales lead, the software would use historical or new data to provide names, phone numbers, and email addresses to reach those people.

Salesforce will reveal more about the plan at its annual Dreamforce conference in a few weeks. Einstein, Benioff said, is the outgrowth of a series of AI acquisitions including RelateIQ, MetaMind, Implisit, PreductionIO, and TempoAI.

As a result of that buying spree, Salesforce now fields a team of 175 data scientists that are “stitching together this amazing platform,” Benioff noted.

2: Acquisitions remained key

Salesforce may have been outbid for LinkedIn by Microsoft (MSFT), but Benioff say its $2.8 billion acquisition of e-commerce Demandware is a huge game-changer. Demandware’s e-commerce capabilities fit nicely with Salesforce’s marketing software. What retailer, after all, does not need marketing?

Also its $582 million acquisition of Quip in early August, gives Salesforce not only a slick word processing application, but a key tech visionary in Quip chief executive Bret Taylor, who also helped create Google (GOOG)Maps while at that company. He was also formerly Facebook’s (FB) chief technology officer.

3. There was some sluggishness in the U.S.

Benioff and Salesforce chief financial officer Mark Hawkins acknowledged that U.S. sales slowed late in the quarter, and they tried to downplay any broader concern.

“The softness was at the end of the quarter, in July, but none of these deals are going away. None are lost, they may take different shapes and sizes but all of these deals are in play,” Hawkins said.

Benioff said he doesn’t read much into this. “Sometimes you get a quarter where a geography has softness. I don’t attribute it to any one factor, it is what it is, you move on,” he said.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

4: That $10 billion year is in within grasp.

After pledging not to provide any forward guidance Benioff added, “I can do the math and so can you, we’re very close to talking about our $10 billion year but I’m not going to do that on this call.” The company’s current $2.4 billion in quarterly sales means it can meet that goal if it can keep up its numbers.

In May, 2015, Benioff said he wanted Salesforce to hit the $10 billion mark faster than any other enterprise software company. Apparently, he’s sticking to the goal.

What’s next? “When we pass through that, we’ll take a very aggressive goal to double the company,” Benioff noted without further explanation. A company spokeswoman declined to elaborate on his comment.

5: There was no mention of new BFF Amazon

What struck many about Salesforce’s first quarter call in May was how often Benioff talked up Amazon (AMZN), its chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, and Amazon Web Services.

A week later, the two companies announced a big collaboration in which Salesforce committed to use AWS to host new software products while Amazon employees had rights to use all of Salesforce’s software.

Watch for more on Salesforce:

Salesforce traditionally ran its software out of its own data centers, so it’s a major shift for it to move more of those operations over to AWS. That deal, according to Salesforce’s SEC filings, will amount to Salesforce using $400 million in AWS services over four years.

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Big TechSpaceX
Elon Musk’s proposed pay package in SpaceX’s IPO filing reveals what the company actually is: a $1 trillion monster built to colonize Mars
By Eva RoytburgMay 20, 2026
1 hour ago
elon
SuccessIPOs
SpaceX IPO targets $28.5 trillion total addressable market, mission to ‘make life multiplanetary’ and understand ‘true nature of the universe’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia
AINvidia
Nvidia tells skeptical investors that AI is ready to go mainstream
By Ian King and BloombergMay 20, 2026
4 hours ago
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
Big TechSpaceX
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
By Allie Garfinkle and Alexei OreskovicMay 20, 2026
4 hours ago
Elon Musk sits with his fists together, looking up.
Commentaryspace
SpaceX will be worth trillions, but the space station that made it possible is worth even more — if we don’t squander it
By Tejpaul BhatiaMay 20, 2026
4 hours ago
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
AsiaAsia Agenda
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
By Angelica AngMay 20, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
3 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
10 hours ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
8 days ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 19, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.