Santa Cruz Operation Inc yesterday warned that its second quarter earnings will be significantly below analysts expectations of $0.13 when it reports its numbers of April 25th. The company expects to report earnings per share of between $0.02 and $0.05, down from $0.08 last time, on revenue of between $53m to $55m, up from $50.7m. SCO blames weak European sales – especially in Germany and France – and the cost of developing its Gemini Unix operating system and Tarantella Java application access software on the anticipated shortfall. SCO earned $2.9m on the $50.7m it did in the second quarter of 1996; its estimated second quarter 1997 earnings correspond to a profit of between $732,000 and $1.83m. SCO says sales in the Benelux countries and UK were also off, while Spain improved. It claims North American and Pacific Rim sales were strong. It now expects to begin shipping the Gemini I combination of its UnixWare and OpenServer operating systems to its installed base sometime in the second half, while the Tarantella team is supposed to deliver a business plan to productize the Java-based application access technology by the end of the month.
