Business Objects Reports 18% Second-Quarter Sales Increase

Business Objects SA Thursday reported that escalating sales of its flagship BusinessObjects XI business intelligence software drove an 18% increase in revenue for its second quarter ended June 30 to $262.4 million. Net income more than doubled to $ 23.1 million.

BusinessObjects XI sales accounted for more than $50 million in license revenue during the quarter, more than three times its sales in the first quarter when it was launched, says CEO Bernard Liautaud. Software license revenue increased 7% year over year to $124.9 million during the quarter.

The company also reported a 36% increase in sales of software for performance management tasks to $8.9 million. Last week the company said it will acquire SRC Software Inc., a developer of financial planning and budgeting applications, for $100 million in a deal Business Objects says will strengthen its performance management offerings. The acquisition is expected to be completed in September and was not included in the second-quarter results.

The number of contracts valued at $1 million or more signed during the quarter increased to 13 from eight during the same quarter last year, Liautaud says. Such deals usually mean that a customer is standardizing on the vendor's products, rather than using business intelligence products from multiple vendors throughout a company. Customer wins included Australia Post, Federal Express, and the U.S. General Services Administration.

For the current quarter the company expects revenue in the range of $248 million to $253 million, not including the acquistion of SRC. For the year the company expects revenue of $1.025 billion to $1.040 billion.