Benioff to speak, Salesforce to market

Salesforce.com chairman/CEO Marc Benioff will be hosting a media event in San Francisco, Calif. at 3pm Eastern Standard Time today. Though the live event is invitation-only, a live audio and slide webcast will be available on salesforce.com’s Investor Relations website.

Just this morning (while the Western Hemisphere was mostly asleep or still properly carousing), Salesforce.com Inc. PR released a communiqué stating that Salesforce would help other companies market their software products on its Salesforce.com and charge commissions on sales generated by the new service.

Under the new paid service slated for February launch, Salesforce will offer additional marketing assistance to help other software companies sell their products to Salesforce’s client base and give them prominent positioning on the site.

Salesforce said it would charge a 10 percent commission on the first year’s revenue on each sale that is closed. A premium version of the marketing service will become available in August, with a commission rate of 25 percent.

In December 2007, Salesforce expects to have launched a separate service that would handle ordering, billing and collection on software purchased through the Salesforce.com website.