Salesforce.com IPO now imminent

Shares in customer relationship management supplier Salesforce.com are expected to start trading on 23 June.

Originally scheduled for March, the company's initial public offering (IPO) has been delayed by a number of factors, including the need to settle some of the accounting issues around its innovative, pay-as-you-go sales model.

According to the Financial Times the shares will be priced on Tuesday night and should start trading on Wednesday.

Salesforce.com's model is based around a $50 per user online system which has led competitor Siebel to introduce its own rental model as well as a hybrid 'rental and purchase' scheme.

Other issues delaying the IPO include the cost of indemnity faced by insurance companies when going public and, according to press reports, the outspokenness of chief executive Marc Benioff during the compulsory 'quiet period'.

Neil Morgan, vice president for EMEA at Siebel, offered a cautious welcome for the rival's IPO. "It's a good thing for Salesforce.com to do to raise money, and it's a good sign for the CRM industry," he said.

"But people are extrapolating the idea that, just because of this one IPO, their model is the only one. And that is too big a shift."

According to Morgan, Siebel now has 500 trials of its new software under way in Europe.