Micro Focus Group Plc, the London, UK and Mountain View, California-based Cobol software tools company, forged ahead with a strong second quarter through July, marking it five consecutive quarters of impressive earnings growth. First half net profits rose by 112% to $10.4m on revenues up 35% at $97.0m. We delivered a particularly strong performance in our international markets, said chief executive Martin Waters, who noted that revenue growth in the first half had exceeded growth for the whole of last year. A key factor behind this achievement was strong demand for the firm’s expertise in transferring old Cobol-based legacy applications onto distributed computing architectures, said Waters. The company’s shares, which are split roughly 90% to 10% between its UK and Nasdaq listings, closed up 5% at 480 pence in London. The stock was also buoyed by yesterday’s positive results from Micro Focus’ latest acquisition of Rockville, Maryland-based Intersolv Inc. This transaction is to be put before shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting in one month’s time. Headcount at Micro Focus grew to just under 1,000 staff from 760 last year.
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