SAP reports strong fourth-quarter growth
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Beating analysts&#39; expectations and citing strong performance worldwide, SAP released preliminary fourth-quarter financial results on Monday, showing revenue will be about &#8364;3.25 billion ($4.8 billion), a rise of 10 percent compared to the same period last year.
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InfoWorld - German software maker SAP said a stronger euro significantly slowed the growth of its revenue and profits during the third quarter.
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German software maker SAP said a stronger euro significantly slowed the growth of its revenue and profits during the third quarter.SAP reported third-quarter revenue of &#8364;2.4 billion ($3.4 billion as of Sept. 30, the last day of the period being reported), up 9 percent over the same period last year. Net profit was &#8364;408 million, up 10 percent from a year ago.SAP said its results could have been stronger, but were held back by the stronger euro. Over the last year, the euro has risen 13 percent against the U.S. dollar, going from an exchange rate of $1.27 on Sept. 30, 2006, to hit $1.43 on Sept. 30, 2007.The euro also rose substantially against the Japanese yen, rising from an exchange rate of &#165;150 to &#165;164 during the same period.Excluding the impact of the stronger euro, SAP said its revenue growth would have been four percentage points higher using constant currencies, while the increase in operating profit -- a number that excludes nonoperating income and taxes used to calculate net profit -- would have been five percentage points higher, reaching 14 percent instead of 9 percent.Despite the hit from currency exchange rates, SAP executives were bullish on the third-quarter results and said the company remains on track to post revenue growth of up to 14 percent, in constant currencies, for the full year, compared to growth of 12 percent last year.Revenue from new software licenses in the quarter was &#8364;715 million, up 11 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, or an increase of 15 percent at constant currencies, SAP said.Revenue from software and software related services, which includes maintenance revenue, was &#8364;1.74 billion, up 13 percent from the year before, or 16 percent at constant currencies.The growth rate from new software licenses was&#160;slower than in SAP&#39;s second quarter, when new license sales increased 18 percent. It was also slower than Oracle&#39;s growth from applications for its latest quarter, reported in September, when new license revenue jumped 65 percent, helped by Oracle&#39;s acquisitions.SAP&#39;s growth was sluggish in Germany and the U.S., where revenue grew only 4 percent, but stronger in the rest of Europe and the Americas. Asia-Pacific growth was 20 percent, excluding Japan, but sales in Japan grew just 3 percent.SAP signed a global enterprise agreement during the quarter to provide software for Apple. Such contracts typically run for five years and generate about &#8364;100 million in revenue for SAP, said SAP spokesman Frank Hartmann. SAP has only eight contracts of this kind, he said, including others with Nestle&#160;and Unilever. Apple was already an SAP customer.The results come at a time of intense competition between SAP and Oracle.&#160;Oracle has sued SAP&#160;for allegedly stealing software and other copyright material, and the companies have announced big acquisitions that take them deeper into each other&#39;s turf.SAP said last week it would&#160;buy business intelligence vendor Business Objects&#160;for $6.8 billion, while Oracle has offered $6.7 billion to&#160;buy middleware vendor BEA Systems, although BEA has said the offer is too low.&#160;
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(InfoWorld) - As Oracle executives patted themselves on the back for their company's reporting another strong financial quarter, they also couldn't resist having a go at prime applications rival SAP. "Oracle had another very strong quarter," Safra Catz, co-president and chief financial officer at Oracle, said Tuesday during a conference call with analysts to discuss the vendor's fiscal 2007Â first-quarter results. "We had our strongest first-quarter license growth in more than five years by gaining market share," she added. Charles Phillips, co-president of Oracle, said the company had won 88 deals going head-to-head with SAP during the quarter, including customer wins with Electrolux, Lockheed Martin, and U.S. Steel. Some of the business is what he termed "winbacks" of business Oracle had previously lost to SAP, including a strategic win at Wal-Mart Stores. In recent months, the bitterÂ competitive back-and-forthÂ between Oracle and SAP has reached a crescendo. Oracle jumped on SAP's July announcement ofÂ lower than expected salesÂ and cited it as proof that the applications vendor's growth had stalled. SAP retorted that the results were a slight blip and not indicative of a major issue with its performance, which it believes remains strong. Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive officer, cites two factors that he believes are working in Oracle's favor over SAP: its Java-based middleware and its aggressive focus on getting industry-specific expertise and products through acquisitions. Ellison claimed that Oracle's Fusion middleware is "years ahead" of SAP's NetWeaver integration platform. "NetWeaver is still relatively new and still incomplete," he said. Oracle's so-called "hot pluggable" or component-based Fusion middleware strategy is paying off, Phillips said. Typically, the company sells one or two of its middleware components into a customer account with the hope that over time that customer will expand their use of Oracle's middleware. Turning to applications, Ellison criticized SAP's recent decision toÂ retain the current versionÂ of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, mySAP ERP 2005, through 2010 and provide new functionality through regularly issued optional enhancement packages. "SAP has delayed the next release of its applications until 2010," he said. "They'll be two full years behind our Fusion release." Oracle is working on a new suite of enterprise applications, known as Project Fusion, which is due out in 2008. By contrast, SAP executives have positioned the company's move to a more modular approach to product upgrades as being driven by customers' demands to pick and choose functionality. This quarter will be the last time Oracle provides separate database and middleware growth figures, Catz said. In the first quarter, database revenue grew 10 percent, while middleware rose 56 percent. In future, Oracle will adopt the practice of IBM and Microsoft and not break out those sales, she said. Looking to the second quarter, Catz expects Oracle's net income to grow by between 13 percent and 17 percent as revenue increases by 22 to 24 percent. She forecast earnings per share (EPS) of $0.22. Those predictions don't take into account any specific charges likely to occur in the quarter.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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IBM provided more details of its robust fourth-quarter and 2007 financial performance on Thursday following an early preview of the figures on Monday.IBM expects its overall growth to continue significantly in 2008 with earnings per share rising to between $8.20 and $8.30 this year, and between $10 and $11 by 2010. That would compare to $7.18 per share reported for 2007.&quot;I realize this is a challenging environment with economic uncertainty, but I think there are still opportunities for growth,&quot; Mark Loughridge, IBM&#39;s CFO, said during a conference call.IBM is in good position even in the event of a downturn, Loughridge argued, because of its global reach, its status as a &quot;proven infrastructure provider,&quot; and the capital it has for investments. The company ended 2007 with $16.1 billion in cash on hand.IBM&#39;s pending acquisitions of Telelogic and Cognos will add further to the bottom line in 2008, he said. &quot;We expect to provide synergies not only in software but [also in] services, servers, and storage,&quot; Loughridge said of the Cognos deal.IBM&#39;s fourth-quarter growth was especially strong in emerging markets and in its services and software groups, Loughridge said, though the company&#39;s System z mainframe business didn&#39;t perform as well.As reported on Monday, IBM&#39;s fourth-quarter revenue, aided by exchange rates and sales outside the U.S., stood at $28.9 billion, an increase of 10 percent over the same period in 2006. The figure beat the forecast of $27.82 billion from analysts polled by Thomson First Call, and was aided by the ongoing weakness in the dollar.Earnings per share for the quarter was $2.80, topping the analysts&#39; forecast of $2.60 per share. The results represent a 24 percent increase over the same period in 2006, when IBM earned $2.26 per share.IBM&#39;s services and software divisions showed particular strength in the quarter. Revenue from Global Technology Services grew 16 percent to $10 billion, reflecting strength around the globe and in various industries, IBM said. Global Business Services rose 17 percent to $4.9 billion, the company said.IBM&#39;s Software Group had fourth-quarter revenue of $6.3 billion, an increase of 12 percent compared to 2006. WebSphere revenue climbed by 23 percent; Information Management sales, 11 percent; Tivoli software, 19 percent; Lotus, 7 percent; and Rational, 22 percent, compared with the same quarter in 2006.Revenue from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $6.8 billion for the quarter, down 4 percent. System p UNIX server products grew by 9 percent from a year earlier, and System x server revenue increased 6 percent. But System z revenue fell by 15 percent.The drop in System z sales will be mitigated by the upcoming launch in February of IBM&#39;s next-generation mainframe, according to Loughridge. &quot;We expect the first quarter to be a period of product transition, with growth coming in the second quarter.&quot;The Americas generated $11.7 billion in revenue, up 5 percent over 2006. Revenue from Europe/Middle East/Africa was $10.8 billion, up 16 percent. Asia-Pacific revenue increased 15 percent to $5.5 billion. OEM revenues were $894 million, a drop of 13 percent compared to the same period in 2006.In some developing countries, including Malaysia and Ecuador, IBM is seeing &quot;insatiable demand&quot; due to strong economies powered by a growing middle class, Loughridge said.&quot;To me, this is a virtual gold rush in these rapidly emerging economies,&quot; he said. &quot;In the past, IBM built much of the infrastructure for the developed world. We see a new area of growth in these emerging markets.&quot;For the full year, total 2007 revenue was $98.8 billion, an 8 percent increase from 2006. The overall earnings for 2007, at $7.18 per share, marked an increase of 18 percent over 2006, IBM said. Net income for the year stood at $10.4 billion, up from $9.5 billion in 2006.IBM&#39;s stock was up $5.60 in after-hours trading to $106.50.
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The world's leading provider of business software, SAP, said Wednesday it expected sustained growth this year following a 3.0-percent rise in net profit in 2007.
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BERLIN -- SAP AG, the German business management software maker, reported a 15 percent jump in third-quarter net profit Thursday, citing increased sales across the globe.
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Oracle Corp.  posted  higher quarterly profit on Thursday on stronger-than-expected  new software license revenue and said it was taking share from  major rivals SAP AG  and IBM
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Exports help raise Q4 GDP to a stronger-than-expected 3.5%
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(InfoWorld) - Broad and strong revenue growth drove Oracle to higher profit in the fourth quarter and the company's full 2007 fiscal year. The software giant's quarterly revenue rose 20 percent from a year earlier to $5.8 billion, and its net income was up 23 percent to $1.6 billion, based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Earnings rose 27 percent from a year earlier to $0.31 per share. The company boasted of big year-over-year gains in revenue from new database and middleware licenses, new application licenses, services, licensing, and software overall. Full-year revenue was also up, with a 25 percent increase to $18 billion. Net income and earnings per share for the year also rose. Excluding certain items, Oracle earned $0.37 per share in the quarter. That result beat estimates by analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who had expected $0.35 per share. Revenue also beat analysts' consensus estimate of $5.6 billion. "It was a great year," president and chief financial officer Safra Catz said in a news release. (More to follow.)
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The company reported fourth-quarter net income on higher commercial airplane deliveries and strong growth in defense earnings, beating Wall Streetâs expectations.
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Business software maker completes fourth round of funding.
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The company said it earned $52 million in the fourth quarter on strong U.S. and international sales. Its shares climbed more than 7 percent in morning trading.
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Net income rose to 291 million euros ($366 million), or 94 cents a share, from 252 million euros, or 81 cents, a year earlier, Walldorf, Germany-based SAP said in a statement.
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LONDON (CBS.MW) -- SAP has returned to double-digit growth and is continuing to beat its major rivals in worldwide and US market share, the business software leader said on Thursday.
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IBM on Thursday provided more details of its robust fourth-quarter and 2007 financial performance, following an early preview of the figures on Monday.
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Business software maker SAP AG said Thursday that its second-quarter profit grew 8 percent, citing market share gains and strong sales growth in all three major markets &#151; Europe, Asia and the United States.