Earnings Roundup

Concerto Software has announced its first quarter 2005 revenue of $66.7 million, a 4.7 percent decrease compared to $70 million in fourth-quarter 2004, but an 83.7 percent increase compared to $36.3 million from first-quarter 2004. Product revenue from first quarter 2005 was $27.7 million, a 72 percent increase from first-quarter 2004 and an 8 percent decrease from fourth quarter 2004. "We are pleased with our Q1 performance. We were able to exceed our plan, which gives us the opportunity to make incremental investments in the areas where we see organic growth, particularly in Asia Pacific areas like China, India, and the Philippines, as well as Latin America," says Mike Provenzano, Concerto CFO. "We'll always continue to look at acquisitions as an avenue of growth for the company but we're actually very pleased with our organic growth year over year and our increased profitability just really proves that we've realized the synergies from our M&A transactions from 2004." In September 2004, the company acquired FirstPoint Contact from Rockwell Automation. WebSideStory, an on-demand Web analytics provider, has announced first quarter 2005 revenue of $6.96 million, a 38 percent increase from its first quarter 2004 showing of $5.04 million, and about a 6.5 percent increase from its fourth quarter 2004 revenue of $6.53 million. First quarter 2005 subscription revenue is $6.95 million, compared to its first quarter 2004 subscription revenue of $4.97 million, and its fourth quarter 2004 subscription revenue of $6.52 million. On a GAAP basis first quarter 2005 earnings per share was 6 cents, including stock-based compensation expenses of $182,000 or about 1 cent per share. During the first quarter the company signed up more than 100 new customers; signed a definitive agreement to acquire Avivo (which does business as Atomz), a provider of on-demand digital marketing applications, expanding the company's solutions into site search and Web content management; and continued its expansion in Europe and Asia. As a combined WebSideStory-Atomz entity, the company's financial guidance includes a second quarter 2005 revenue of $9.2 million to $9.4 million. However, as a sole entity prior to the acquisition WebSideStory's revenue guidance for the second quarter would have been from $7.8 million to $7.9 million. SPSS has announced first-quarter net-revenue 2005 of $57.5 million, in comparison to $57.1 million first quarter 2004 and fourth quarter 2004 revenue of $60.5 million. The predictive analytics software provider reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of 13 cents, an 18 percent increase from its first quarter 2004 diluted EPS of 11 cents, and a 35 percent decrease from its fourth quarter 2004 diluted EPS of 20 cents, which included a $1.5 million pretax write-off of fixed assets. The company's first quarter included software license or service agreements with organizations like Abbott Laboratories, Brown University, Philips, Welch's, and Yahoo!. Additionally, Nucleus Research unveiled the results of an independent study on SPSS predictive-analytics solutions, revealing that 94 percent of SPSS's customers had experienced a positive ROI from deployments following a 10.7-month average deployment time. The company expects second quarter 2005 revenues to be in the $56 million and $58 million range, with diluted EPS of 8 cents to 14 cents. Business Objects has unveiled first-quarter 2005 revenues of $248.8 million, a 15 percent year-over-year increase, and a 7.5 percent increase from the pervious quarter. US GAAP diluted EPS were 16 cents and pro forma diluted EPS were 24 cents, compared to fourth quarter 2004 US GAAP diluted EPS of 24 cents and fourth quarter 2004 diluted EPS of 30 cents. Some of the company's first quarter customer wins included Banner Health and CAN Insurance. Business Objects also won nine transactions, each more than $1 million in license revenues. The company expects its total revenues to be between $250 million and $255 million, US GAAP diluted EPS within the range of 20 cents to 22 cents, and pro forma diluted EPS from 26 cents to 28 cents. The pro forma diluted EPS second quarter 2005 outlook excludes amortization of intangible assets and deferred stock-based compensation expense of about $9.0 million--an increase of 6 cents per share. NCR, which includes its Teradata division, reported first-quarter net income of $30 million, or 16 cents per share, which includes a 5 cent per share charge to reduce the value of an equity investment that was partially offset by a 3 cent per share benefit from the reduction of previously estimated accruals for purchased goods and services. Excluding these items NCR generated $35 million of net income, or 18 cents per share. In first-quarter 2004 NCR reported a net loss of $5 million or 3 cents per share. For the second quarter NCR expects total revenue to grow 3 percent to 4 percent, from the prior-year period, and GAAP earnings per share to be 18 cents to 23 cents. Excluding the expected $18 million non-cash pension increase, however, the company expects earnings per share in the range of 25 cents to 30 cents. Related articles: Concerto Acquires Legendary Contact Center System SPSS Highlights Customers' Future Needs Data Management and Predicting Customer Behavior