CNQR article
<<Adds comments from Concur Chief Executive Steven Singh in 6th, 7th, 11th and 14th paragraphs. Updates share price.)
Redmond, Washington, Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Concur Technologies Inc., a maker of software to manage corporate personnel and business records, plunged as much as 61 percent after it warned fiscal fourth-quarter revenue could fall 30 percent short of estimates.
Concur, based in Redmond, Washington, fell 19 1/2 to 13 3/8 in midafternoon trading of 12.5 million shares, more than 50 times the three-month daily average. Earlier, shares touched 12 3/4. It was the tenth most active U.S. stock.
Concur's products weren't being upgraded fast enough and its purchase of closely held Seeker Software meant more products to sell, which was slowing purchase decisions, analysts said. The sales shortfall was likely to continue into next year and earnings forecasts would have to be lowered, they said. ''Very few companies have problems like this that last one quarter,'' said Elliot Prince, an analyst with Wit Capital Group Inc. with a ''buy'' rating on the stock. ''I won't say there won't be further downside to the stock, because it may drop further once we lower our estimates.''
Concur said unexpected delays in closing ''several'' large orders in the quarter ended Sept. 30 accounted for the shortfall. It now expects revenue of $8.6 million to $9.2 million, including $5 million to $5.3 million in license revenue. Analysts were expecting revenue of $12.3 million to $12.7 million and license sales of $8.1 million to $8.8 million. ''We had several deals where we have frankly won the business, but we haven't been able to close those deals out in the September quarter,'' Chief Executive Steven Singh said in an interview. Singh refused to say whether the company expected the slowdown to affect revenue in future quarters. ''We've not given any advice to analysts or the public in respect to the future,'' Singh said. ''We feel fundamentals of business are right on track.''
Seeker Acquisition
Concur's most popular program is Internet-based Employee Desktop, which automates processes among employees, partners, suppliers and service providers to reduce operating costs, increase employee productivity and improve supplier management.
In June, Concur acquired closely held Seeker Software, which makes software allowing companies to automate routine tasks, including processing new hires, transfers and leaves of absences.
Concur said that selling an expanded range of software products slowed sales because companies took longer to evaluate the larger number of products before committing to a sale. ''When you offer that number of products there's a lot of different people involved in approval,'' Singh said. ''You end up solving bigger problems, but the sale cycle tends to be a little longer.''
Concur also lost sales to customers because it hasn't yet upgraded its products that run with PeopleSoft Inc., software. PeopleSoft is the No. 2 business management software maker. PeopleSoft recently upgraded its software, and Concur hasn't yet made its programs compatible with the upgrade, Singh said. ''As more people deploy PeopleSoft 7.5, we need to upgrade our front office software,'' Singh said. He would not say when Concur's software would work with the new PeopleSoft products. ''It's coming out in the future, but we haven't set a date,'' he said. ''It's a high priority.''
In the year-ago quarter, the company had revenue of $6.3 million, including $3.9 million from software licenses.
The company said it will disclose fourth-quarter and full- year earnings results Oct. 27.>>
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