Crystal Decisions To Report Surge In SalesCrystal Decisions To Report Surge In Sales

Business-intelligence software vendor Crystal Decisions Inc. will report next week that sales for its fiscal year ended June 29 increased 32%, to $166.9 million, from $126.5 million the previous year. The company will also disclose that despite the economic slump, sales in the fourth quarter increased 36% from a year earlier and 6% from the preceding quarter.

Crystal Decisions is privately held, and the company doesn't reveal earnings or sales information for specific quarters. But the company is expected to say that software license revenue--a key indicator of growth among software vendors--was $107 million for fiscal 2001, a 44% increase over the previous year. License revenue increased 49% in the fourth quarter last year. The company will also say that its employee head count increased 15%--mostly within its sales force--to 1,340 during the year.

Crystal Decisions, previously a subsidiary of Seagate Technology LLC, was sold to a group of private investors in November. The company markets a range of business-intelligence software, including the ubiquitous Crystal Reports query and reporting application. "Crystal Reports, besides spreadsheet applications, is probably the most widely deployed piece of business software out there," says Mike Schiff, an analyst with Current Analysis.

But Schiff says the Crystal product line lost some of its brand identity after Seagate acquired Crystal Services Inc. in 1994. "The big news here is that they've emerged from the shadow of 920 Disc Drive," he says, referring to Seagate's Scotts Valley, Calif., headquarters. Schiff attributes Crystal Decision's healthy sales to its "solid" installed base and the re-emergence of the Crystal brand. Along with Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions sells enterprise-class reporting and analysis software and the Holos online analytical-processing software.

Analysts have speculated that Crystal Decisions' owners are gearing up to take the company public when the market for initial public offerings improves, but company execs declined to comment.