Actuate Earns Profit, But Q1 Sales SoftenActuate Earns Profit, But Q1 Sales Soften

Reporting software maker Actuate eked out a small profit in the first quarter, though sales edged south to $24.6 million from $25.7 million in the same period a year ago.

The company said after market close Thursday that it earned $245,000 in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $377,000 in the first quarter of 2004. Though Actuate achieved a 10 percent increase in services revenue to $15.7 million, license revenue fell to $8.9 million, from $11.5 million.

Actuate CEO Pete Cittadini said the company will continue to focus on marketing its enterprise reporting applications. Actuate had success selling software that focuses on specific business processes, such as financial performance management and customer self-service, he said.

The chief executive reported progress with Actuate's Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) project. That initiative, which Actuate is carrying out in partnership with the Eclipse Foundation, is designed to create open-source reporting tools.

Actuate reported that users have downloaded more than 5,000 preview versions of the BIRT technology, which is available at eclipse.org/birt. The software is targeted at J2EE developers who want to build reporting capability into their applications.