"Fake" Steve Jobs gives Salesforce.com the business

I don't usually quote other blogs, but I couldn't resist this posting from Fake Steve Jobs who was ripping on Salesforce.com:

I know everyone's worried about Apple but folks if you're looking to short something, how about a stock that's trading at nearly 4,000 times earnings? Yep. You heard that right. Or, okay, say you want to look at a forward P/E instead of trailing. This thing is still outrageous. Especially when you consider that Larry is pushing Oracle into their space and NetSuite into their space (and yes, okay, full disclosure, Larry slid me a nice chunk of NetSuite as a late birthday present, so yes, I'll do well on their IPO, but that's not why I'm touting them. Not at all. Just like that's not why all the VCs out here are pimping Facebook. Ahem.)

The other problem for Salesforce is, of course, the Borg. See here and here. Beastmaster Bill is coming into the space and undercutting Salesforce on price, ie disrupting the disrupter. What else? Um, well, Salesforce has a blowhard CEO who learned all about business ethics during his time at Oracle and who brags about manipulating the press. What else? Oh yeah. Their chief accounting officer just resigned, which is always a good sign, especially in a company that has a subscription model and the tricky revenue recognition policies that go along with that. Nuff said.

If you're not familiar with Fake Steve Jobs, the blog is a very funny read. Up until TODAY, the blog was written by a secret person pretending to be Steve Jobs. And while you obviously have to take everything he says with a grain a salt, I think he's right on the money with his critique of Salesforce.com! Check out the MSFT and CRM stock quotes side by side. 3,300 times earnings? Almost no profit? Any company of any size should carefully consider if they are willing to bet one of the most valuable assets (their customer database) on this operation...and don't forget that their CEO is still selling off his Salesforce.com shares like crazy.