U.S.-based Salesforce.com Inc. has outperformed our forecast over the past year with strong top-line growth, expanded margins, and reduced leverage to 0.8x from mid-1x a year ago following the acquisition of Mulesoft Inc. We believe the company will continue to expand faster than the overall enterprise software industry, supported by strong industry fundamentals and share gains, while maintaining leverage under 2x through acquisitions. We are raising our issuer credit rating on Salesforce.com to 'A' from 'A-'. The stable outlook on Salesforce reflects our expectation for continued strong revenue and cash flow growth supported by its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model and market share expansion, as well as our view that the company will pursue acquisitions in a manner consistent with the
