Boole & Babbage Inc, set to be acquired by BMC Software Corp in a stock swap valued at $900m, has reported encouraging fourth- quarter results. The San Jose-based mainframe systems management firm posted net income for the quarter that rose 41.3% to $10.3m on revenue up 11.3% at $58m. Earnings per share amounted to $0.34, a penny better than the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call. For the full year, net income rose 172% to $36.7m, or $1.20 per share, on revenue up 10.7% at $218.2m. Full-year results for 1997 include an acquisition charge of $11.3m. Operating income increased 59% to approximately $11m, with margins at 19%, compared to 13.3% in the year-ago period. Distributed systems revenues accounted for roughly 40% of overall license revenue and grew by 50%, while mainframe revenues declined slightly despite a $2.5m sequential increase. North America saw 47% growth and business in Europe – where sales of Boole-branded products rose 33% but were offset by a 20% decline in third-party products – grew 13%. The remaining geographies saw a net 55% decline in sales which Boole says was compounded by its conservative accounting for business in Asia and Latin America. Thus, overall license growth stood at roughly 13% for the quarter. For the year, licensing growth was nearly 20% in constant currency led by North America at 28% and Europe at 20%, while other international channels registered a 3% drop. Distributed system licenses were up approximately 60% and mainframe licenses rose 5%.
