(Bloomberg) — Salesforce.com Inc. gave a revenue forecast that topped Wall Street’s estimates, signaling the maker of cloud-based applications will continue to see rapid growth due to an expanding product lineup and its latest acquisitions.Revenue will be as much as $4.45 billion in the period ending in October, the San Francisco-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts projected $4.18 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Chief Executive Officers Marc Benioff and Keith Block have charted a new path for the market leader in software for managing customer relationships. This month, the company closed its biggest deal ever, buying Tableau Software Inc. for $15.3 billion and announced an agreement to acquire ClickSoftware Technologies Inc. for $1.35 billion. The Tableau purchase will take Salesforce into the analytics market and help it maintain a torrid pace of growth, even as the company turns 20 years old.“They’ve got to show investors that their money was well spent,” Pat Walravens, an analyst at JMP Securities, said in an interview before the results were published.Shares rose about 7% in extended trading after closing Thursday at $148.24 in New York. The stock has climbed 8.2% this year.In addition to deal-making, the software maker has expanded internationally in an effort to grow sales by more than 20% each quarter. Salesforce announced in July that it would partner with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to offer its cloud-based applications in China, even amid a trade war between that country and the U.S.Adjusted profit will be 65 cents a share to 66 cents a share in the current period, in line with analysts’ estimates. Salesforce also increased its annual sales forecast to a range of $16.75 billion to $16.9 billion from $16.45 billion to $16.65 billion. Revenue in the fiscal second quarter increased 22% to $4 billion. Analysts, on average, estimated $3.95 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was 66 cents a share, compared with analysts’ average projection of 47 cents.Tableau will continue to be operated as a separate brand within Salesforce. When the company announced the acquisition, Benioff said that Seattle, where Tableau is based, will become the site of Salesforce’s second headquarters.To contact the reporter on this story: Nico Grant in San Francisco at ngrant20@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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