Salesforce.com gave IT investors cause for concern this week, even though it announced record second-quarter results, while Hewlett-Packard's star shone again despite reporting a slowdown in its printing business.

The companies' earnings results point to a key lesson learned in the current U.S. economic downturn: global, diversified companies tend to do well and capture support from IT investors.

Revenue at Salesforce rose 49 percent from the year-earlier quarter, to US$263.1 million, beating the consensus estimate of analysts of $260.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters. Net income jumped to $10 million, or $0.08 a share, from $3.74 million.

Salesforce is often seen as a bellwether for the SaaS (software-as-a-service) market, since it was one of the first companies to jump into hosted software, and now claims to be the first to achieve an annual revenue run rate of $1 billion. While the quarterly results were strong, investors are reacting badly to the earnings announcement.

Salesforce shares plummeted Thursday, declining by $11.59 to $53.74 in late afternoon trading.

Salesforce's net income missed the analysts' expectation by $0.01, according to Thomson Reuters. But more worrisome was the company's deferred revenue figure, which grew by only 2 percent, sequentially, in the quarter, compared to the 9 percent or 10 percent that is typical of the company. This decline suggests bookings are slowing down, and caused analyst Mark Murphy of Piper Jaffray to downgrade his rating on Salesforce to "neutral" from "buy."

Most of Salesforce's customers are in the U.S. small and medium-size business market -- precisely the type of companies that have been hit badly by the U.S. downturn. In addition, Oracle and Microsoft are ramping up hosted software efforts, putting additional pressure on Salesforce.

In addition, Salesforce's $31.5 million acquisition of InstraNet for call-center technology will dilute earnings. Salesforce is on many analysts' short lists of companies with potential to be acquired. In a software sector report this week, Citigroup said: "Buyers with strong balance sheets are actively looking for consolidation candidates." It included Salesforce on its list of "potential targets with dominant franchises in their respective markets or otherwise attractive assets."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.