Reporting a 4.8% increase in total revenue to $264 million for the three months to October 31, with net income up 15.4% to $33.5 million, BEA found itself unable to shake off this year’s ongoing decline in new business derived from sales of its Java platform.
BEA reported a 10.3% decline in WebLogic license fees to $114 million while services went in the opposite direction, jumping 20% to $149 million. Services accounted for 57% of BEA’s total revenue compared to software, which accounted for 43%.
Business in the Americas, meanwhile, dropped 3%, accounting for 50% of BEA’s overall business, while revenue from BEA’s international operations made up for the rest, lead by Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Company CEO Alfred Chuang attributed weakness in the Americas to uncertainty caused by the recent US presidential election, homeland security and the economy.
The size of IT projects has also shrunk, with 13 deals worth more than $1 million, although Chuang said the mid-market had made up for much of the weakness BEA had experienced.
Chuang described the number of new project starts by customers in the US as very choppy adding customers are bargain hunting, although he denied BEA had come under price pressure from Oracle Corp, IBM Corp or open source software.
Chuang noted BEA had appointed a new head of North American sales early in the quarter.
For the nine-month period, BEA saw a 12.5% increase in net income to $89.4 million on revenue that grew 7.4% to $789 million. Income per diluted share for the period grew three cents to $0.21. For the three-month period, earnings per diluted share were $0.08, up from $0.07.
