Snafu Snags Salesforce IPO

Salesforce.com and its CEO, Marc Benioff, are really learning what it means to be in the public eye. Long known for his flair for marketing and ability to needle larger CRM vendors, Benioff appears to have run afoul of the SEC in his bid to take the CRM service public.

According to a variety of reports, the San Francisco company's initial public offering has been delayed yet again, following publication of two articles last week in The New York Times.

In one story, published May 14, Times financial columnist Floyd Norris chided Benioff for selling up to 8.4 million shares of the company stock, but not disclosing when he sold or for how much. For a May 9 article, Benioff had allowed a Times reporter to tag behind him for a day, even though Salesforce is in its quiet period leading up to the offering.

It now appears that Salesforce has postponed its IPO, most recently scheduled for next week, as it rewrites its prospectus to reveal more information. The company refused to comment.

According to its current form S1 filed with the SEC, Salesforce in the most recent year spent 7 percent of revenue on research and development, and 57 percent on marketing. It expects to value its opening shares at $7.50 to $8.50, worth up to $868 million. That's approximately 10 times company revenue, or about $96 million, in the most recent fiscal year ended Jan. 31.