Hyperion And Informatica Report Sales Growth

Data-management and business-intelligence software vendors Hyperion Solutions Corp. and Informatica Corp. Tuesday reported solid gains in sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31, but very different results on the bottom line.

For its second quarter ended Dec. 31 Hyperion, which develops business-performance and financial-analysis software, reported total revenue of $177.0 million, a 13% increase over the $156.1 million reported in the same period a year ago. Growth was fueled by a 15% year-over-year increase in software license revenue to $68.5 million. Net income for the quarter increased 135% to $15.6 million or 38 cents per share.

"Our biggest product growth was with our Business Performance Management Suite," Hyperion president and CEO Godfrey Sullivan says. That suite is based on business-intelligence software Hyperion acquired when it bought Brio Software Inc. in October 2003. Sales of Hyperion's financial applications grew in double digits during the quarter, while sales of the vendor's Essbase analytic engine, which was upgraded recently to Essbase 7X, were flat while customers evaluate the new release, Sullivan says.

For the current quarter Hyperion expects to report total revenue in the range of $173 million to $178 million and earnings of 35 cents to 40 cents per share.

Hyperion also disclosed that it has acquired Razza Solutions Inc., a privately held developer of software for tracking changes in metadata and data hierarchies. Hyperion will sell Razza's product, renamed the Hyperion Master Data Management Server, as part of its business- intelligence platform. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

For its fourth quarter ended Dec.31 Informatica, which develops data-integration software, reported that revenue increased more than 7% to $60.0 million from the same period one year ago. The company also reported that it signed five deals each worth more than $1 million during the quarter.

But restructuring costs and other one-time charges resulted in a loss for the quarter of $105.8 million or $1.22 per share, compared to net income of $3.2 million (4 cents per share) in last year's fourth quarter.

For the year ended Dec. 31 Informatica reported revenue of $219.7 million, up nearly 7% from one year earlier. For the year, the company reported a loss of $111.5 million ($1.30 per share) compared with net income of $7.3 million (9 cents per share) in 2003.