Results In: Micron Sees Slow Gains, Cognos Has Record

Micron Computer Corp. late yesterday reported a substantialincrease in profits but lower sales revenue for its first fiscal 1999 quarter, ended Dec. 3., compared with last year's first quarter. Net income for the quarter was $11.7 million, compared with $1.07 million last year, and total sales were $403.5 million, down from $558.9 million last year.

Despite the drop in year-over-year revenue, the company is on track to increase its PC market share, said chairman and CEO Joel Kocher. In a conference call, he noted that Micron's revenue increased by 19% over the preceding quarter, which ended in September. Earlier this year, Micron developed a growth strategy that hinges on selling direct to small and midsize businesses, and began to see progress with that strategy in the latest quarter, Kocher said.

Meanwhile, Cognos Inc. yesterday reported record revenues for its third quarter of 1998, ended Nov. 30. For the quarter, revenues were $76.3 million, up 23% from last year's third quarter revenue of $62 million. Net income was $19.3 million and 36 cents per share, way up compared to last year's $783,000 and 2 cents per share, and beating analysts' expectations of 35 cents per share. The biggest growth was in sales of the company's core offering, business intelligence tools, which generated $59.2 million in revenue, an increase of 32% from 1997's third quarter.

Also yesterday, Cognos said it has acquired British software vendor Relational Matters for $10 million in cash and stock. Relational Matters' key product, DecisionStream software, provides a framework that simplifies the loading of data marts by letting users collect data from typically operational sources and transform them into data marts and integrated business intelligence applications, according to Paul Hill, VP of business development at Cognos. The company will offer the software as a complement to its existing PowerPlay, PowerCubes, and Impromptu business intelligence systems.