Salesforce working to field takeover offers: Bloomberg

30/04/2015 - 0:37

(Reuters) - Cloud software company Salesforce.com Inc is working with financial advisers to help it field takeover offers after being approached by a potential acquirer, Bloomberg said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The company's shares rose as much as 17.3 percent to touch an all-time high of $78.46 on Wednesday. They closed up 11.6 percent at $74.65, valuing the company at about $49 billion.

There is no certainty any deal will transpire, Bloomberg said. It did not identify the potential acquirer.

A Salesforce spokeswoman declined to comment.

Salesforce's stock trades at 89.9 times forward earnings, well above the peer median of 19.9, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Several giants of the software industry are seeking to beef up their presence in cloud computing, a fast-growing area of technology that helps customers make use of software, services and content over the Internet.

Multiple sources close to the most obvious potential bidders, including Oracle Corp , Microsoft Corp , Germany's SAP and IBM , poured cold water on speculation that the companies had considered, or were considering, an offer.

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard Co and SAP declined to comment.

Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby in San Francisco, Nadia Damouni in New York, Kshitiz Goliya, Arathy Nair and Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Robin Paxton)