|
Microsoft: Revenues Up 30%
Microsoft has an employee base of approximately 76,000 people in 102
countries. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of
software for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, the US, its best
selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft
Office suite of productivity software.
The company announced revenues of $16.36 bn for the quarter ended December
31, 2007, a 30% increase compared to $12.54 bn for the corresponding quarter
last year. Net profits stood at $4.71 bn compared to $2.63 bn the previous year.
Microsofts client business has grown over 20% on an average and Windows
Vista has sold more than 100 mn licenses in the first year of sales. Driven by
new versions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Exchange
that were launched last November, revenues of the companys Business Division
grew 23%.
The company intends to acquire Yahoo, and has recently sent a final offer for
the acquisition. Currently, the stock trades at $29.16.
Oracle: Profitability Up
Oracle develops database management systems (DBMS), tools for database
development, middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software (ERP),
customer relationship management software (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM)
software. Oracle was founded in 1977, and has offices in 145 countries around
the world.
Revenues of the company for the quarter ended February 28, 2008 stood at
$5.35 bn, a 21% increase from the $4.4 bn revenues for the corresponding period
last year. Net profits were at $1.34 bn compared to $1.03 bn last year. Total
software revenues were up 21% to $4.2 bn with new software license revenues at
$1.6 bn, a 16% growth. Database and middleware new license revenues were up 20%
and applications new license revenues were up 7%. Services revenues were up at
$1.1 bn, a 21% growth when compared to the same quarter last year.
Recently, i-flex approved a proposal to change the name of i-flex to Oracle
Financial Services. Oracle owns 81% in the company. The stock currently changes
hands at $20.35.
SAP: Moderate Growth in Sales
Founded in 1972, the company mainly deals in software products which
includes SAP ERP, SAP R/3, Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), Business
Information Warehouse (BW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), supply chain
management (SCM), supplier relationship management (SRM), etc. The revenues for
the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007, stood at 3.24 bn, up 10% from 2.95
bn in the corresponding quarter last year. Similarly, net profits decreased by
5% to 756 mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 compared with 808 mn the
year before.
Software and software-related service revenues stood at 2.47 bn, an increase
of 13%. Software revenues for the third quarter of 2007 were 1.42 bn,
representing an increase of 14%. For the full year 2007, revenues stood at 10.25
bn, compared to 9.39 bn last year, recording an increase of 9%.
Recently, SAP acquired YASU Technologies, a privately held vendor of business
rules management systems. SAP will embed YASU Technologies solutions into its
NetWeaver, to provide the business rules infrastructure to clients. For the full
year, SAP expects software and software-related service revenues to increase in
a range of 24-27% compared to last year. Currently, the ADS on NYSE trades at
$52.43.
Symantec: Sales Up By 12%
Symantec, founded in 1982, provides a variety of content and network
security software, for consumers and businesses, which are used for functions
such as virus protection, intrusion detection, and remote management. Its
software products include Norton Antivirus, Partition Magic, and Norton Ghost,
among others. The company has an employee base of approximately 17,100 people.
Revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 stood at $2.88 bn compared
to $2.56 bn in the previous year, an increase of 12%. Net profits stood at $132
mn compared to $117 mn for the same quarter last year, a 13% increase.
Symantecs consumer segment grew 8% y-o-y. The security and data management
segment grew 9% y-o-y. The data center management segment represented a y-o-y
growth of 11%, services grew 40% y-o-y, the international segment grew 21%, the
EMEA region grew 26% y-o-y, and the revenue from the America region grew 8%
y-o-y.
Recently, Symantec signed a definitive agreement to sell its application
performance management (APM) business to Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based
private equity firm.
CA: Profits Jump By 213%
CA, earlier known as Computer Associates International, was founded in 1976.
The company has approximately 16,000 employees. Revenues for the third quarter
ended December 31, 2007, stood at $1,100 mn, a 10% increase compared to the
$1,002 mn during the same quarter last year.
The net profit stood at $163 mn compared to $52 mn in the previous year, a
213% growth. North American revenues were up 5% in the second quarter, while
revenues from international operations were up 17%.
During the quarter, CA released Recovery Management enabling companies to
simplify management, tighten security, and speed up recovery of critical
business information. CA Recovery Management includes new releases of CA
ARCserve Backup, CA XOsoft High Availability, and CA XOsoft Replication offering
channel partners and customers the latest advances in data protection, business
continuity, and disaster recovery. Earlier in the quarter, CA entered into an
agreement with Asentinel that will enable customers to incorporate management of
voice and data communications assets and budgets into their overall IT
governance strategies. The stock currently trades at $23.24.
Page(s) 1
| 
Print
Comment
Email
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Twitter
