Salesforce.com Acquires Assistly

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced it has acquired Assistly, an instant customer-service help desk built for the cloud.

Assistly lets small companies and emerging businesses set up and deliver social customer-service in minutes, with zero-touch onboarding. With Assistly, companies can manage service cases and engage with customers in real time over a range of channels – including Facebook, Twitter, Web chats, e-mail and phone – all from one, easy-to-use interface. An innovative business model makes it easy for all employees to join in and engage with customers as they're needed and is why Assistly is used by some of the world's fastest-growing companies like Instagram, Klout, One Kings Lane, Spotify and Square.

Comments on the News:"Salesforce has spent over a decade democratizing enterprise applications in the cloud," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "The Assistly acquisition doubles down on that strategy by putting us at the heart of the new trend of customer service help desk applications that have instant sign up and zero-touch onboarding, expanding the potential reach of the Service Cloud to millions of companies around the world."

"We're committed to making the Service Cloud number one for the smallest to the largest companies in the world," said Alex Dayon, executive vice president, applications, salesforce.com. "We are excited that with Assistly's innovative technology and business model, the Service Cloud will now enable even the smallest companies to become a social enterprise."

"We started Assistly with the goal of bringing awesomely responsive customer support tools to the millions of small businesses struggling to serve customers in today's social world," said Alex Bard, CEO, Assistly. "As part of salesforce.com and the Service Cloud family, Assistly can continue to deliver and improve one of the world's most-innovative customer-service applications. For our customers, this will be an unbeatable combination."

Further Democratizes Service Cloud, Expanding its Potential Reach to Millions of CompaniesWith approximately 104,000 customers, salesforce.com has always been the leader in democratizing enterprise applications for businesses of all sizes.Today, more than 17,000 companies are using the Salesforce Service Cloud to connect with customers across both traditional and social channels; engage directly with their customers over Facebook, Twitter and other social communities; and leverage mobile capabilities like Apple's FaceTime. Earlier this year, the Service Cloud was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers.

With Assistly, salesforce.com now extends that commitment to millions of small and emerging businesses that have been waiting for a customer-service help desk application with instant sign up, zero-touch onboarding, and capabilities and pricing scaled to their needs.

Assistly enables any employee to sign up and start to deliver support in minutes – with the speed, efficiency and flexibility small companies and emerging businesses need to provide social customer-service. The customer-service application pulls all customer conversations, regardless of channel, into a single interface – making it easy to engage in real time with any customer. Case filters, business rules and workflows ensure no request goes unresolved.

Assistly's flexible pricing is preferred by small and emerging businesses. Any employee can have an account, and companies can choose to pay by the hour – allowing employees from different teams to pitch in to handle peak loads, meet seasonal demands or just help out in busy times as they're needed. Companies can upgrade these users to full-time agents at $49 per person per month for unlimited use.

Adding Assistly to the Service Cloud family will enable salesforce.com to extend its reach to millions of small companies. The U.S. alone has 5.8 million businesses with 99 or fewer employees, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And as part of the Service Cloud family, Assistly customers that continue to grow will have the option to migrate to other Service Cloud products and services over time.With Assistly, Even the Smallest Companies Can Deliver Social Customer-Service

Salesforce.com is leading the shift to the social enterprise, helping companies leverage social, mobile and open cloud technologies to put customers at the heart of their business. For many organizations, that shift begins with customer service, as businesses engage with their customers where they are now – on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.With Assistly, now even the smallest companies can manage service cases and engage with customers in real time over a range of channels – including Facebook, Twitter, Web chats, e-mail and phone – all from one, easy-to-use interface.

The combination of Assistly and the Service Cloud makes it easy for any company, regardless of size, to transform itself into a social enterprise.

Financial DetailsSalesforce.com acquired Assistly for approximately $50 million in cash, net of cash acquired. As part of the transaction salesforce.com also assumed Assistly's unvested options and will issue restricted stock units to certain Assistly shareholders.

The acquisition is expected to have no material impact to salesforce.com's revenue in the third quarter and fiscal year ending January 31, 2012. Including an expected one-time investment gain related to the transaction, salesforce.com expects no material impact to its projected fiscal third quarter non-GAAP EPS. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, the acquisition of Assistly is expected to reduce non-GAAP EPS by approximately ($0.02) to approximately $1.28 to $1.30.

Non-GAAP EPS estimates exclude the impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, and the tax consequences associated with these items. The financial impact of the acquisition on a GAAP basis cannot be estimated until the allocation of the purchase price is completed following the closing of the acquisition. However, salesforce.com currently expects that the dilutive impact of the acquisition to EPS will be significantly greater on a GAAP basis than a non-GAAP basis.