salesforce.com inc. (NYSE:CRM) reported a drop to a loss in the third quarter driven by higher costs.  Reported a loss of $3.8 million (3 cents per diluted share) in the quarter. The application software company had net income of $21.1 million or 15 cents per share in the year earlier quarter. Revenue rose 36.2% to $584.3 million from the year earlier quarter. CRM fell short of the mean analyst estimate of 3 cents per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $571.4 million.

“Salesforce.com is the first enterprise cloud computing company to exceed a $2.3 billion annual revenue run rate,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “And today, we’re excited to announce that we expect to reach a $3.0 billion annual revenue run rate during our fiscal year 2013.”

Competitors to Watch: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), Servicesource Intl. Inc (NASDAQ:SREV), SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), NetSuite Inc. (NYSE:N), Intl. Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA), LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN), and Constant Contact, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCT).

GigaMedia Limited (NASDAQ:GIGM) reported its results for the third quarter. The company’s loss narrowed to $3.9 million (7 cents per share) vs. a loss of $4.3 million (17 cents per share) the year earlier. Revenue fell 1% $7.8 million.

“We experienced a challenging environment during the third quarter with low levels of customer activity in our casual games and strong competition,” stated GigaMedia Limited Chief Executive Officer Yichin Lee . “Weaknesses are clear: our offerings are not broad or deep enough and our business unit operations are not efficient. As a result, our financial performance continues to suffer.””We are making incremental improvements but need to restructure to respond to an ongoing, dramatic shift in online gaming from PCs to mobile devices,” added CEO Yichin Lee . “As a third-party publisher, we are at a competitive disadvantage in today’s environment where the risks for major games are higher than ever and speed and flexibility are critical. In sum, our strategy as a publisher is not working.”

Competitors to Watch: Giant Interactive Group Inc (NYSE:GA), Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:SNDA), Perfect World Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:PWRD), Changyou.com Limited (NASDAQ:CYOU), The9 Limited (NASDAQ:NCTY), NetEase.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Get Your FREE Special Report: 4 Things You Must Know About the US Economy Now!