Salesforce bets on independent developers

As SAP gobbles up Business Objects, Salesforce took a dramatic step to position the company as a viable alternative to the traditional pillars of the enterprise software space. On Friday, Salesforce took the wraps off of a $25 million fund that will underwrite software developers and third party vendors. The move was made with VC partners Bay Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. The money will be distributed to some 50 software start-up companies, where teams will be given $500,000 to develop on-demand applications on Salesforce's platform, Force.com. This represents a major initial effort to establish the platform as a financial opportunity for third-party developers, and to create a broader variety of applications and capabilities for the enterprise. Australia-based Sqware Peg, for instance, has created an SMS (short-message service) marketing application using the platform. This is a big opportunity for the VC partners as well.  Startups that develop innovative offerings on the platform may be terrific investment opportunities. 

For more on the deal:
- check out the article by CNET