Financials Are Mixed Bag For Software VendorsFinancials Are Mixed Bag For Software Vendors

Data management, integration, and analysis software vendors turned in mixed results for the quarter ended June 30. Hyperion Solutions Corp. and Ascential Software Corp. this week both reported healthy sales and earnings gains for the quarter, while Sybase Inc. reported lower sales and earnings.

In recent weeks, major software vendors such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, and Veritas have reported disappointing sales and earnings for the June quarter.

Hyperion, which develops financial planning-and performance-management applications, reported that revenue for its fourth quarter rose 28% to $176.4 million from $138.0 million in the same period last year. Software license revenue, a key growth indicator, was up 30% to $72.2 million. Net income was up to $14.7 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with $9.2 million, or 25 cents per share, one year earlier.

For all of fiscal 2004, Hyperion reported revenue of $622.2 million, up 22% from 2003, and a 28% increase in net income to $43.8 million or $1.10 per share. For the current quarter, Hyperion is projecting revenue in the range of $155 million to $160 million and earnings of 17 cents to 22 cents per share.

Ascential, a supplier of data-integration software, reported revenue of $64.7 million for its second quarter, up 62% from $39.9 million last year. License revenue increased 19% to $25.0 million, while net income rose to $1.2 million, or 2 cents per share, compared with $700,000 or 1 cent per share one year earlier.

Earlier in the week, Ascential rival Informatica Corp. reported disappointing second-quarter results. While sales grew 5% to $53.0 million, that was below earlier forecasts and net income dropped to $1.0 million, or 1 cent per share, from $3.3 million, or 4 cents per share last year.

Sybase, which develops database-management and mobile-computing software, said revenue for its second quarter ended June 30 fell 2.1% to $188.0 million from $192.0 million in the same period last year. License revenue declined 5.4% to $60.4 million. Net income was $12.8 million, or 13 cents per share, down from $14.6 million, or 15 cents per share, one year ago.

Business-intelligence software vendor Business Objects SA is among the software vendors that report financial results next week.