Salesforce.com 3Q profit jumps 55 percent

Internet software service Salesforce.com Inc. said Thursday its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 55 percent on a surge in customers.

Salesforce reported net income of $10.1 million, or 8 cents per share, for the quarter ended Oct. 31, up from $6.5 million, or 5 cents per share, a year prior. Revenue rose 43 percent to $276.5 million from $192.8 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 7 cents per share on revenue of $273.6 million.

"In times like these, our value proposition of low startup cost, low risk, and fast results is resonating like never before," said Chairman and Chief Executive Marc Benioff, in a statement. "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."

Salesforce sells monthly subscriptions that allow employees to call up its customer management programs on any computer with an Internet connection.

The company had a 36 percent boost in customers, to 51,800, during the quarter.

Shares of Salesforce.com rose $1.77, or 7.8 percent, to $24.60 in after-hours trading after rising 87 cents, or 4 percent, to close the regular session at $22.83.