Salesforce.com announces IPO

Salesforce.com took the first step toward offering stock in an initial public offering (IPO) by filing paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company announced Thursday.

Salesforce.com, a vendor of comprehensive customer relationship management services based in San Francisco, will use Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. as the sole book runner for the IPO. Co-managers will be Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., UBS Securities LLC, Wachovia Capital Markets LLC and William Blair & Co. LCC.

Saying the company was in its SEC-mandated quiet period before the IPO, a Salesforce spokeswoman declined to discuss the date of the IPO.

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, has approximately 8,400 customers and approximately 120,000 paying subscribers running its services in 11 languages, according to a company press release.