Adobe Systems Inc told analysts at its annual conference that financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter ending November 27 should come in ahead of Wall Street expectations. The San Jose-based document management and desktop publishing software house said preliminary estimates show revenues in the range of $240m to $245m, compared to $227.1m in the year-ago quarter. At that level, earnings per share should reach $0.60 to $0.65, when the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call was $0.56. Operating expenses should be about $146m-151m, reflecting recent restructuring activities. The quarter also benefited from two major product releases, Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and the web publishing tool Adobe ImageStyler. Back in August, the company cut over 250 staff as it warned of third quarter results that came in far south of estimates. It said at the time that the restructuring would allow it to reduce expenses by $50m to $60m (8-10%) annually. Looking ahead, however, Adobe said it remains cautious about the global economic conditions, particularly in Japan and other parts of Asia. Adobe expects to announce full results for the quarter December 16
