CRM Salesforce Inc

By Aaron Tilley 

Salesforce.com Inc. posted record sales and lifted its outlook for the current year as the business software provider benefits from a broader embrace during the pandemic of software services among enterprise customers.

The San Francisco-based company Thursday reported revenue of $5.82 billion, up 20% from the year-ago period. The company had a net income of $267 million. Results topped Wall Street's expectation of $5.68 billion in quarterly sales and a net income of $46 million, according to FactSet.

"We never could have predicted a year ago what was in store, which makes me incredibly proud of how well we pivoted our company to adapt to this pandemic world," Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff said in a statement.

Salesforce, which was founded more than 20 years ago largely as a provider of customer relationship management software to enterprise customer, has been expanding the services it offers as it tries to challenge rivals such as Microsoft Corp. The company in December struck its biggest-ever acquisition, the $27.7 billion proposed acquisition Slack.

Investors have been wary about the acquisition of Slack, which loses money. Salesforce shares have slumped around 10% since The Wall Street Journal first reported deal talks.

The Justice Department is putting the deal through a detailed antitrust review, the two companies said in regulatory filings this month. Salesforce has said it expects the deal to close by July 31.

Salesforce said Slack would help boost its top line in this fiscal year by around $600 million. The company lifted its full-year outlook to sales of $25.65 billion to $25.75 billion, or $200 million about the earlier forecast.

(More to come.)

Write to Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2021 16:44 ET (21:44 GMT)

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