When I published my previous post questioning whether recent executive departures at salesforce.com were an indication of a slowdown in the company’s business, I debated whether to also leave the door open to the possibility that some of these individuals might be jumping to other job opportunities.

Sure enough, salesforce.com’s former president and chief strategy officer, Steve Cakebread, has resurfaced already at Xactly Corporation where it was announced this morning he will serve as the company’s new CFO, a role he also held at salesforce.com.

This hire gives Xactly even greater market validation and credibility after its recent acquisition of Centive.

The announcement also suggests my suspicions about potential problems at salesforce.com may have been premature. The company’s latest financial results are scheduled to be announced on February 25.

Meanwhile, NetSuite announced its financial results for 2008 yesterday. The company had a record year with revenues up 40.5% overall, reaching $152.5 million. Even its fourth quarter revenue of $41.4 million was up 30.5% over the fourth quarter of 2007. NetSuite added 350 new customers and ended the year with a quarterly profit. Pretty good for a company which is selling a mission-critical application to a tough buyer, the CFO.

So, the warming winter temperatures seem to have also brought some much needed good news regarding the state of the SaaS movement.

Centive Netsuite SaaS Salesforce.com Software-as-a-Service Xactly