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TIBCO Announces Results That Are 'Better Than Worse Than Expected'

TIBCO Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) is the latest software vendor to report that they are following a new trend in the stock market: reporting results that exceed lowered analyst expectations. Analysts had expected TIBCO to earn 3 cents per share, down from the 8 cents per share that they originally projected. TIBCO had only recently revised its guidance, on March 7. In the end, TIBCO reported pro forma results of 6 cents per share, up from 1 cent per share for the first fiscal quarter of 2000.

TIBCO had pro forma operating income for the first fiscal quarter of $3.5 million, up from $153,000 for the first fiscal quarter of 2000. TIBCO had pro forma net income of $12.4 million, up from $1.3 million for the first quarter of the prior year. According to Vivek Ranadiv, chairman and CEO of TIBCO Software "TIBCO's fundamental business remains strong. Our customers and partners are leaders in their industries, our technology is essential to the success of our customers' business, and our balance sheet is solid. Despite the slowing economy, we nearly doubled our revenue over the same quarter last year. We remain critical for our customers' success by providing infrastructure software that enables them to improve operating efficiencies, reduce costs and capitalize on new revenue opportunities."

During the quarter, TIBCO added 111 new direct customers and announced new or expanded business with companies including FedEx Corporation, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, and Delta Air Lines. In addition, the vendor released 17 new products or versions of products in the first quarter, including XML Canon/ Developer, TIB/IntegrationManager 2.0 and a number of new adapters to leading packaged applications.

Market Impact

This announcement by TIBCO follows closely on the heels on a similar announcement by Oracle on March 15. Many other vendors have also met the same fate. It is becoming impossible for them to predict what confidence level should be assigned to their sales pipeline since the economy is so skittish. Perhaps the current environment for software vendors was best described by Oracle CFO Jeffrey O. Henley, who stated "The U.S. economic downturn over the past several months clearly affected our revenue and profit growth more than we anticipated, due to a sharp downturn in completed transactions in the last few days of the quarter, and the current economic uncertainty continues to limit our visibility going forward."