Salesforce doesn't look like a company looking for a buyer

John Shinal | Special for USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO -- Since reports first surfaced in April that Salesforce.com had hired new financial advisers, many investors have pointed to them as proof that the software company is looking for a buyer.

Yet no deal has materialized, and the company's positive earnings surprise late Wednesday adds to evidence suggesting a very different scenario.

Based on its latest results and subsequent comments from CEO Marc Benioff, it looks more likely any bankers brought on board recently are there to help fend off takeover offers, not solicit them.

While there's no way to declare an acquisition won't get done, Salesforce right now doesn't look like a company that wants or needs a buyer.

It posted a 23% year-over-year rise in fiscal first-quarter sales, swung to a profit from a year-ago loss and edged its revenue guidance higher for the current fiscal year.

Its current fiscal 2016 revenue forecast of $6.5 billion represents top-line growth expectations of 20%.

Meanwhile, larger rivals and potential acquirers Microsoft MSFT, Oracle ORCL and SAP are all posting annual revenue growth in the single digits.

What's more, Salesforce CRM reported a 25% rise in deferred revenue, a robust gain for one of its most important financial metrics.

Because Salesforce has always billed its software customers on a monthly subscription basis, that recurring revenue stream provides good visibility into its near-term growth trajectory.

That trajectory looks even more bullish today, which helps explain why Salesforce would be an acquisition target for a larger software maker looking to boost growth.

Yet Benioff, in comments made to CNBC after the results were announced, deflected any suggestion his company was for sale and instead repeated an oft-stated goal for the company: to become the fastest company to get to $10 billion in annual sales.

Investors love that kind of talk and pushed the shares up another 4% Thursday.

The stock is now up 46% during the past 12 months, roughly doubling the Nasdaq's gain and giving the company a market value of $48 billion.

At that size, it's worth more than half the $90 billion market cap of German software giant SAP, one of Salesforce's most likely potential acquirers.

It's also roughly a quarter of Oracle's $194 billion value, which would make a transaction with either of those companies very expensive for their shareholders.

Microsoft, valued at $386 billion and holding cash of nearly $100 billion, could more easily acquire Salesforce.

Yet given Benioff has spent the last decade bashing all three of those larger rivals, running into their arms when business is thriving seems more than unlikely.

All of this suggests that if any large software company is looking to acquire Salesforce, it may have to put such aspirations on hold until the company's business prospects sour and investors abandon its shares.

Neither of those scenarios look likely in the near future.

John Shinal has covered tech and financial markets for more than 15 years at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek,The San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal.