RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, as well as the other information in this prospectus, before deciding whether to invest in shares of our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would suffer. In this case, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline and you might lose all or part of your investment in our common stock. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks that we currently do not know about or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also impair our business operations.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We are an early-stage company in an emerging market with an unproven business model, a new and unproven enterprise technology model and a short operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects and may increase the risk of your investment.

We have only a limited operating history and our current business and future prospects are difficult to evaluate. We were founded in February 1999 and began offering our on-demand CRM application service in February 2000. You must consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we encounter as an early-stage company in the new and rapidly evolving market of on-demand CRM application services. These risks and difficulties include the following:

We may not be able to successfully address any of these risks or others, including the other risks related to our business and industry described below. Failure to adequately do so could seriously harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer.

We have incurred significant operating losses in the past and may incur significant operating losses in the future.

We incurred significant losses in each fiscal quarter from our inception in February 1999 through fiscal 2003 and we may incur significant operating losses in the future. Our business does not have an established record of profitability and we may not continue to be profitable. In addition, we expect our operating expenses to increase in the future as we expand our operations. If our revenue does not grow to offset these expected increased expenses, we will not continue to be profitable. You should not consider recent quarterly revenue growth as indicative of our future performance. In fact, in future quarters we may not have any revenue growth, and our revenue could decline. Furthermore, if our operating expenses exceed our expectations, our financial performance will be adversely affected.

If we experience significant fluctuations in our operating results and rate of growth and fail to meet revenue and earnings expectations, our stock price may fall rapidly and without advance notice.

Due to our limited operating history, our evolving business model and the unpredictability of our emerging industry, we may not be able to accurately forecast our rate of growth. For example, in the last two fiscal years, we have recorded quarterly operating income of as much as $4.3 million and quarterly operating losses of as much as $4.9 million. We base our current and future expense levels and our investment plans on estimates of future revenue and future rate of growth. Our expenses and investments are, to a large extent, fixed and we

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expect that these expenses will increase in the future. We may not be able to adjust our spending quickly enough if our revenue falls short of our expectations.

As a result, we expect that our operating results may fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis. Revenue growth may not be sustainable and may decrease in the future. We believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance.

Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party Web hosting facility could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business.

We provide our service through computer hardware that is currently located in a third-party Web hosting facility in Sunnyvale, California operated by Qwest Communications International Inc. We do not control the operation of this facility, and it is subject to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. It is also subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct. Despite precautions taken at the facility, the occurrence of a natural disaster, a decision to close the facility without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at the facility could result in lengthy interruptions in our service. In addition, the failure by the Qwest facility to provide our required data communications capacity could result in interruptions in our service. We have an agreement with SunGard Data Systems, a provider of availability services, to provide access to a geographically remote disaster recovery facility that would provide us access to hardware, software and Internet connectivity in the event the Qwest facility becomes unavailable. Even with this disaster recovery arrangement, however, our service would be interrupted during the transition. We are in the process of obtaining additional rapid recovery services from another third-party vendor. However, we do not expect to have this arrangement in place before July 2004 at the earliest. Any damage to, or failure of, our systems could result in interruptions in our service. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their subscriptions and adversely affect our renewal rates. Our business will be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our service is unreliable.

If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a customer’s data, our service may be perceived as not being secure and customers may curtail or stop using our service.

Our service involves the storage and transmission of customers’ proprietary information, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation and possible liability. If our security measures are breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, and, as a result, someone obtains unauthorized access to one of our customers’ data, our reputation will be damaged, our business may suffer and we could incur significant liability. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed and we could lose sales and customers.

If our on-demand application service is not widely accepted, our operating results will be harmed.

Historically, we have derived substantially all of our revenue from subscriptions to our on-demand application service, and we expect this will continue for the foreseeable future. As a result, widespread acceptance of our service is critical to our future success. Factors that may affect market acceptance of our service include:

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Many of these factors are beyond our control. The inability of our service to achieve widespread market acceptance would harm our business.

The market for our technology delivery model and on-demand application services is immature and volatile, and if it does not develop or develops more slowly than we expect, our business will be harmed.

The market for on-demand application services is new and unproven, and it is uncertain whether these services will achieve and sustain high levels of demand and market acceptance. Our success will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of enterprises, large and small, to increase their use of on-demand application services in general and for CRM, in particular. Many enterprises have invested substantial personnel and financial resources to integrate traditional enterprise software into their businesses, and therefore may be reluctant or unwilling to migrate to on-demand application services. Furthermore, some enterprises may be reluctant or unwilling to use on-demand application services because they have concerns regarding the risks associated with security capabilities, among other things, of the technology delivery model associated with these services. If enterprises do not perceive the benefits of on-demand application services, then the market for these services may not develop at all, or it may develop more slowly than we expect, either of which would significantly adversely affect our operating results. In addition, as a new company in this unproven market, we have limited insight into trends that may develop and affect our business. We may make errors in predicting and reacting to relevant business trends, which could harm our business.

Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions for our service over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in sales may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.

We recognize revenue from customers monthly over the terms of their subscription agreements, which are typically 12 to 24 months, although terms can range from one to 60 months. As a result, much of the revenue we report in each quarter is deferred revenue from subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter will not necessarily be fully reflected in the revenue in that quarter and will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our cost structure to reflect these reduced revenues. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our service may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.

We do not have an adequate history with our subscription model to predict the rate of customer subscription renewals and the impact these renewals will have on our revenue or operating results.

Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our service after the expiration of the initial subscription period and in fact, some customers have elected not to do so. In addition, our customers may renew for a lower priced edition of our service or for fewer users. We have limited historical data with respect to rates of customer subscription renewals, so we cannot accurately predict customer renewal rates. Our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including their dissatisfaction with our service and their ability to continue their operations and spending levels. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our service, our revenue may decline and our business will suffer.

Our future success also depends in part on our ability to sell additional features or enhanced editions of our service to our current customers. This may require increasingly sophisticated and costly sales efforts that are targeted at senior management. If these efforts are not successful, our business may suffer.

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We derive a significant portion of our revenue from small businesses, which have a greater rate of attrition and non-renewal than medium-sized and large enterprise customers.

Our small business customers, which we consider to be companies with fewer than 200 employees, typically have shorter initial subscription periods and, based on our limited experience to date, have had a higher rate of attrition and non-renewal as compared to our medium-sized and large enterprise customers. We estimate that sales to small businesses were approximately 40 percent of our revenue during fiscal 2004. If we cannot replace our small business customers that do not renew their subscriptions for our service with new customers quickly enough, our revenue could decline.

Our limited operating history may impede acceptance of our service by medium-sized and large customers.

Our ability to increase revenue and maintain profitability depends, in large part, on widespread acceptance of our service by medium-sized and large businesses. Our efforts to sell to these customers may not continue to be successful. In particular, because we are a relatively new company with a limited operating history, these target customers may have concerns regarding our viability and may prefer to purchase critical CRM applications from one of our larger, more established competitors. Even if we are able to sell our service to these types of customers, they may insist on additional assurances from us that we will be able to provide adequate levels of service, which could harm our business.

The market for our service may be limited if prospective customers, particularly large customers, require customized features or functions that we do not currently intend to provide in our service or that would be difficult for individual customers to customize within our service.

Prospective customers, especially large enterprise customers, may require heavily customized features and functions unique to their business processes. If prospective customers require customized features or functions that we do not offer, and that would be difficult for them to implement themselves, then the market for our service will be more limited and our business could suffer.

As more of our sales efforts are targeted at larger enterprise customers, our sales cycle may become more time-consuming and expensive, potentially diverting resources and harming our business.

As we target more of our sales efforts at larger enterprise customers, we will face greater costs, longer sales cycles and less predictability in completing some of our sales. In this market segment, the customer’s decision to use our service may be an enterprise-wide decision and, if so, these types of sales would require us to provide greater levels of education to prospective customers regarding the use and benefits of our service. In addition, larger customers may demand more customization, integration services and features. As a result of these factors, these sales opportunities may require us to devote greater sales support and professional services resources to individual sales, driving up costs and time required to complete sales and diverting sales and professional services resources to a smaller number of larger transactions.

The market in which we participate is intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.

The market for CRM applications is intensely competitive and rapidly changing, barriers to entry are relatively low, many of our competitors are larger and have more resources than we do, and with the introduction of new technologies and market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. If we fail to compete effectively, our operating results will be harmed. Some of our principal competitors offer their products at a lower price, which has resulted in pricing pressures. If we are unable to maintain our current pricing, our operating results could be negatively impacted. In addition, pricing pressures and increased competition generally could result in reduced sales, reduced margins or the failure of our service to achieve or maintain more widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business.

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Our current principal competitors include:

In addition, we face competition from businesses that develop their own CRM applications internally, as well as from enterprise software vendors and online service providers who may develop and/or bundle CRM products with their products in the future. We also face competition from some of our larger and more established competitors who historically have been packaged CRM software vendors, but who are developing directly competitive on-demand CRM application services offerings, such as Siebel Systems through Siebel CRM OnDemand and through its acquisition of Upshot Corporation. Our professional services organization competes with a broad range of large systems integrators, including Accenture Ltd., BearingPoint, Inc. and IBM, as well as smaller independent consulting firms specializing in CRM implementations. We have relationships with many of these consulting companies and frequently work cooperatively on projects with them, even as we compete for business in other customer engagements.

Many of our potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets as well as substantially greater financial, technical and other resources. In addition, many of our potential competitors have established marketing relationships and access to larger customer bases, and have major distribution agreements with consultants, system integrators and resellers.

As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. Furthermore, because of these advantages, even if our service is more effective than the products that our competitors offer, potential customers might accept competitive products and services in lieu of purchasing our service. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors.

We may not be able to develop enhancements and new features to our existing service or acceptable new services that keep pace with technological developments.

If we are unable to develop enhancements to and new features for our existing service or acceptable new services that keep pace with rapid technological developments, our business will be harmed. The success of enhancements, new features and services depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction and market acceptance of the feature or edition. Failure in this regard may significantly impair our revenue growth. In addition, because our service is designed to operate on a variety of network hardware and software platforms using a standard browser, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our service to keep pace with changes in Internet-related hardware, software, communication, browser and database technologies. We may not be successful in either developing these modifications and enhancements or in timely bringing them to market. Furthermore, uncertainties about the timing and nature of new network platforms or technologies, or modifications to existing platforms or technologies, could increase our research and development expenses. Any failure of our service to operate effectively with future network platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our service, result in customer dissatisfaction and harm our business.

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Any efforts we may make in the future to expand our service beyond the CRM market may not succeed.

To date, we have focused our business on providing on-demand application services for the CRM market, but we may in the future seek to expand into other markets. However, any efforts to expand beyond the CRM market may never result in significant revenue growth for us. In addition, efforts to expand our on-demand application service beyond the CRM market may divert management resources from existing operations and require us to commit significant financial resources to an unproven business, which may harm our business.

If we fail to develop our brand cost-effectively, our business may suffer.

We believe that developing and maintaining awareness of the salesforce.com brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future services and is an important element in attracting new customers. Furthermore, we believe that the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in our market develops. Successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts and on our ability to provide reliable and useful services at competitive prices. In the past, our efforts to build our brand have involved significant expense. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incurred in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, or incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract enough new customers or retain our existing customers to the extent necessary to realize a sufficient return on our brand-building efforts, and our business could suffer.

Any failure to adequately expand our direct sales force will impede our growth.

We expect to be substantially dependent on our direct sales force to obtain new customers, particularly large enterprise customers, and to manage our customer base. We believe that there is significant competition for direct sales personnel with the advanced sales skills and technical knowledge we need. Our ability to achieve significant growth in revenue in the future will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient direct sales personnel. New hires require significant training and may, in some cases, take more than a year before they achieve full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become as productive as we would like, and we may be unable to hire sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do business. If we are unable to hire and develop sufficient numbers of productive sales personnel, sales of our service will suffer.

Sales to customers outside the United States expose us to risks inherent in international sales.

Because we sell our service throughout the world, we are subject to risks and challenges that we would otherwise not face if we conducted our business only in the United States. For example, sales in Europe and Asia Pacific represented approximately 14 percent and 18 percent of our total revenue in fiscal 2003 and fiscal 2004, respectively, and we intend to expand our international sales efforts. The risks and challenges associated with sales to customers outside the United States include:

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Some of our international subscription fees are currently denominated in U.S. dollars and paid in local currency. As a result, fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies may make the service more expensive for international customers, which could harm our business. We do not currently engage in currency hedging activities to limit the risk of exchange rate fluctuation.

Defects in our service could diminish demand for our service and subject us to substantial liability.

Because our service is complex, it may have errors or defects that users identify after they begin using it, which could harm our reputation and our business. Internet-based services frequently contain undetected errors when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. We have from time to time found defects in our service and new errors in our existing service may be detected in the future. Since our customers use our service for important aspects of their business, any errors, defects or other performance problems with our service could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs, customers could elect not to renew, or delay or withhold payment to us, we could lose future sales or customers may make warranty claims against us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable or the expense and risk of litigation.

Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.

If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our competitors might gain access to our technology, and our business might be harmed. In addition, defending our intellectual property rights might entail significant expense. Any of our trademarks or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. We currently have no issued patents and may be unable to obtain patent protection in the future. In addition, if any patents are issued in the future, they may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be challenged by third parties. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every country in which our service is available. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property.

We might be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our proprietary rights. Any litigation, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel.

We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights.

The software and Internet industries are characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, trademarks and copyrights and by frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. As the number of entrants into our market increases, the possibility of an intellectual property claim against us grows. Our technologies may not be able to withstand any third-party claims or rights against their use. Any intellectual property claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming and expensive to litigate or settle, and could divert management attention from executing our business plan. In addition, many of our subscription agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-party intellectual property infringement claims, which would increase the cost to us of an adverse ruling in such a claim. An adverse determination could also prevent us from offering our service to others.

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We rely on third-party hardware and software that may be difficult to replace or which could cause errors or failures of our service.

We rely on hardware purchased or leased and software licensed from third parties in order to offer our service, including database software from Oracle Corporation. This hardware and software may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of this hardware or software could result in delays in the provisioning of our service until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained and integrated, which could harm our business. Any errors or defects in third-party hardware or software could result in errors or a failure of our service which could harm our business.

We may be required to purchase the interest in our Japanese joint venture held by our joint venture partner, under certain circumstances, on terms that may not be favorable to us.

In some circumstances, we may be required to purchase the interest of our Japanese joint venture partner. If we default under the terms of our joint venture agreement with our joint venture partner, or if we and our partner disagree over a course of action proposed for the joint venture entity and the disagreement continues, then our partner may require that we purchase its interest in the joint venture. In the event we are required to purchase our partner’s interest in the joint venture, we could be forced to make an unanticipated outlay of a significant amount of capital, which could harm our operating results. Although the timing and circumstances of any such purchase, were it to be required, are not predictable, if the joint venture were valued based on its most recent financing, which occurred in September 2003, the buyout price could be as much as approximately $13.0 million.

If we acquire any companies or technologies in the future, they could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results.

We may acquire or make investments in complementary companies, services and technologies in the future. We have not made any acquisitions or investments to date, and therefore our ability as an organization to make acquisitions or investments is unproven. Acquisitions and investments involve numerous risks, including:

In addition, if we finance acquisitions by issuing convertible debt or equity securities, our existing stockholders may be diluted which could affect the market price of our stock. As a result, if we fail to properly evaluate and execute acquisitions or investments, our business and prospects may be seriously harmed.

Evolving regulation of the Internet may affect us adversely.

As Internet commerce continues to evolve, increasing regulation by federal, state or foreign agencies becomes more likely. For example, we believe increased regulation is likely in the area of data privacy, and laws and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, processing or use of personal or consumer information could affect our customers’ ability to use and share data, potentially reducing demand for CRM solutions and

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restricting our ability to store, process and share data with our customers. In addition, taxation of services provided over the Internet or other charges imposed by government agencies or by private organizations for accessing the Internet may also be imposed. Any regulation imposing greater fees for Internet use or restricting information exchange over the Internet could result in a decline in the use of the Internet and the viability of Internet-based services, which could harm our business.

The success of our business depends on the continued growth and acceptance of the Internet as a business tool.

Expansion in the sales of our service depends on the continued acceptance of the Internet as a communications and commerce platform for enterprises. The Internet could lose its viability as a business tool due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of Internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility, and quality-of-service. The performance of the Internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been harmed by “viruses,” “worms,” and similar malicious programs and the Internet has experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of damage to portions of its infrastructure. If for any reason the Internet does not remain a widespread communications medium and commercial platform, the demand for our service would be significantly reduced, which would harm our business.

Our growth could strain our personnel and infrastructure resources, and if we are unable to implement appropriate controls and procedures to manage our growth, we may not be able to successfully implement our business plan.

We are currently experiencing a period of rapid growth in our headcount and operations, which has placed, and will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. We anticipate that further growth will be required to address increases in our customer base, as well as our expansion into new geographic areas.

Our success will depend in part upon the ability of our senior management to manage this growth effectively. To do so, we must continue to hire, train and manage new employees as needed. If our new hires perform poorly, or if we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, managing and integrating these new employees, or if we are not successful in retaining our existing employees, our business may be harmed. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. The additional headcount and capital investments we are adding will increase our cost base, which will make it more difficult for us to offset any future revenue shortfalls by offsetting expense reductions in the short term. If we fail to successfully manage our growth, we will be unable to execute our business plan.

We are dependent on our management team, and the loss of any key member of this team may prevent us from implementing our business plan in a timely manner.

Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our executive officers and other key personnel, particularly Marc Benioff, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. We are also substantially dependent on the continued service of our existing development personnel because of the complexity of our service and technologies. We do not have employment agreements with any of our executive officers, key management or development personnel that require them to remain our employees and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time without penalty. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees. The loss of one or more of our key employees could seriously harm our business.

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Because competition for our target employees is intense, we may not be able to attract and retain the highly skilled employees we need to support our planned growth.

To execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers with high levels of experience in designing and developing software and Internet-related services and senior sales executives. We may not be successful in attracting and retaining qualified personnel. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the Internet and high-technology industries, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options they are to receive in connection with their employment. Significant volatility in the price of our stock after this offering may, therefore, adversely affect our ability to attract or retain key employees. Furthermore, proposed changes to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States relating to the expensing of stock options may discourage us from granting the size or type of stock options awards that job candidates require to join our company. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects could be severely harmed.

We might require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available.

We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new services or enhance our existing service, enhance our operating infrastructure and acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock, including shares of common stock sold in this offering. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. In addition, we may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

For example, we currently are not required to record stock-based compensation charges if the employee’s stock option exercise price is equal to or exceeds the deemed fair value of our common stock at the date of grant. However, several companies have recently elected to change their accounting policies and begun to record the fair value of stock options as an expense. Although the standards have not been finalized and the timing of a final statement has not been established, FASB has announced its support for recording expense for the fair value of stock options granted. If we were required to change our accounting policy in accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation and SFAS No. 148. Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation—Transition and Disclosure , and retroactively restate prior periods as if we had adopted these standards for all periods presented, then our cost of revenues and operating expenses would have increased by approximately $1.7 million for fiscal 2003 and $4.1 million for fiscal 2004.

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Risks Related to this Offering

The trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile, and you might not be able to sell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.

The trading prices of the securities of technology companies have been highly volatile. Accordingly, the trading price of our common stock is likely to be subject to wide fluctuations. Further, our common stock has no prior trading history. Factors affecting the trading price of our common stock will include:

In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences continued or greater loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. The trading price of our common stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies in our industry even if these events do not directly affect us.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade our stock, the price of our stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. There are many large, well- established publicly traded companies active in our industry and market, which may mean it will be less likely that we receive widespread analyst coverage. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who do cover us downgrade our stock, our stock price would likely decline rapidly. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.

Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.

If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after the 180-day contractual lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of our common stock could decline below the initial public offering price. Based on shares outstanding as of January 31, 2004, upon completion of this offering, we will have outstanding 99,554,971 shares of common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option. Of these shares, only the 10,000,000 shares of common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market. Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated may, in its sole discretion, permit our officers, directors, employees and current stockholders who are subject to the 180-day contractual lock-up to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements.

After the lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering expire 180 days from the date of this prospectus, up to an additional 89,554,971 shares will be eligible for sale in the public market, 54,466,612 of which are held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates and will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and various vesting agreements. In addition, the 1,299,496 shares subject to outstanding warrants and the 24,817,774 shares subject to outstanding options and reserved for future issuance under our

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1999 Stock Option Plan, 2004 Equity Incentive Plan, 2004 Outside Directors Stock Plan and 2004 Employee Stock Purchase Plan will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting agreements, the lock-up agreements and Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

The concentration of our capital stock ownership with insiders upon the completion of this offering will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters.

We anticipate that our executive officers, directors, current 5 percent or greater stockholders and affiliated entities will together beneficially own approximately 54.8 percent of our common stock outstanding after this offering. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have control over most matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate action might be taken even if other stockholders, including those who purchase shares in this offering, oppose them. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company that other stockholders may view as beneficial.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the proceeds to us from this offering and might not apply the proceeds of this offering in ways that increase the value of your investment.

Our management will have broad discretion to use the net proceeds from this offering, and you will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of these proceeds. They might not apply the net proceeds of this offering in ways that increase the value of your investment. We expect to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and for possible investments in, or acquisitions of, complementary services or technologies. We have not allocated these net proceeds for any specific purposes. Our management might not be able to yield a significant return, if any, on any investment of these net proceeds.

You will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the net tangible book value of the shares you purchase in this offering.

The initial public offering price of our common stock will be substantially higher than the book value per share of the outstanding common stock after this offering. Therefore, based on an assumed offering price of $8.00 per share, if you purchase our common stock in this offering, you will suffer immediate and substantial dilution of approximately $7.15 per share. If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option, or if outstanding options and warrants to purchase our common stock are exercised, you will experience additional dilution.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws or Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our common stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our common stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions:

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In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company.

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