Salesforce.com To Sell $1 Billion in Notes, Commits to Renewables

Salesforce.com (CRM) announced its intention to offer $1 billion aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes, and said it will work to steadily increase the amount of renewable energy used in its data center operations.

John Rath

March 13, 2013

2 Min Read
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Enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com (CRM) announced its intention to offer $1 billion aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes, with the potential for $150 million more, in long-term convertible debt. The company recently announced 2013 fourth quarter and full year fiscal results, with operating cash flow totaling $737 million, up 25 percent year-over-year. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at $1.8 billion.

With $1.15 billion Salesforce.com intends to use a portion of the net proceeds for the cost of the convertible note hedge transactions, and fund possible acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses, services or technologies, working capital and capital expenditures. The company has an almost $27 billion market cap presently.

Salesforce.com issued a sustainability commitment memo recently, citing a goal of becoming fully powered by renewable energy. It will work to steadily increase the amount of renewable energy used in its data center operations.  The company memo lists four steps that it will take this year towards achieving the goal:

  • Adopting a data center siting policy that states a preference for access to clean and renewable energy supply

  • Researching energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for future data centers

  • Encouraging data center energy providers to increase the supply of renewable energy

  • Convening peers, sustainability specialists and energy experts around data center energy issues

Salesforce.com added more than 100,000 square feet of new data center space in 2012. The company currently houses much of its operations in colocation space from third-party companies, including Equinix, and thus is currently reliant on the power mix from these providers. Salesforce.com has said that it will evaluate building its own data centers as its infrastructure expands.

Celebrating its 14th birthday recently, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff reflected on the journey of turning a simple idea into a high-growth company.

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