PeopleSoft Inc should begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel come Spring, according to indications given by CEO Ron Codd to Merrill Lynch & Co’s software watchers. PeopleSoft believes that by mid-1999 companies will be winding up their Y2K spending to the point where budgets will begin heading north; part of the reason for PeopleSoft’s current ebb in fortune. Although margins are uncertain, PeopleSoft expects to achieve 25% to 35% revenue growth in 1999. The first fruits of the new vertical, analytical and e-business apps should also be felt by mid-1999. It will be accelerated by increases in the R&D cycle enabled by the creation of the Momentum R&D spin-out, the brokerage believes.
