Comshare Reports Third Quarter Profit; Record License Fee Gains for BudgetPLUS and FDC
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2000--Comshare,
Incorporated (Nasdaq:CSRE) announced today net income of $0.2
million, or $0.02 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2000,
which compares to a net loss of $1.4 million, or a loss of $0.15 per
share, in the same period one year ago. Net income for the nine months
was $0.3 million, compared to a net loss of $1.3 million in the same
period one year ago.
Total revenue for the third quarter was $15.0 million, up slightly
from $14.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. Total license fees
of $5.6 million in the third quarter increased 4% over the $5.4
million in the same quarter a year ago.
"The license fee growth this quarter, although modest, was an
important milestone as the increase was driven by the success of our
newer products, particularly BudgetPLUS and FDC," stated Dennis G.
Ganster, Comshare President and CEO. "License fees for the newer
products grew 38% compared to the same quarter a year ago, and
represented 90% of license fees, compared to 68% of license fees in
the third quarter of fiscal 1999."
"There were a number of other positives in the quarter," continued
Ganster. "BudgetPLUS license fees were a record $2.7 million, higher
than any previous quarter, including the seasonally strongest fourth
quarters of prior years. The 172% growth in BudgetPLUS license fees
reflected increases in both our direct and distributor territories.
The growth in BudgetPLUS reflects our marketing focus that places
BudgetPLUS as the cornerstone to our management planning and control
product suite. That growth reflects the successful change to broaden
our technology platform to support mainstream relational databases.
Over 80% of BudgetPLUS license fees were from the new relational
database versions released last year. FDC was again a success story
this quarter, with license fees up 104%, compared to the year-ago
quarter, influenced by the new management reporting and analysis
capability added late last fiscal year. As a result of the growing
BudgetPLUS and FDC license fees in the prior quarters, implementation
services revenue increased 21%, contributing to overall revenue
growth."
License fees from Comshare's distributor territories declined 15%,
negatively affected by the decline in legacy license fees. However,
license fees of Comshare's newer products increased 23% in the
distributor territories, indicating that the shift toward the
Company's newer products is underway. Performance in the direct sales
territories was again strong, with license fee growth of 29%.
"Comshare's financial picture has been steadily improving, with
profits in nine of the last ten quarters, continued growth in our
newer products, and positive cash flow in the third quarter,"
concluded Ganster.
"With BudgetPLUS well established, we are broadening our message
to cover the full management planning and control product suite. Our
goal is to offer Web-based solutions that seamlessly unite planning,
budgeting, reporting and analysis into a fully integrated, closed-loop
system supporting the management planning and control process," stated
Ganster. "Toward that end, we released two new products during the
third quarter: Comshare Planning and Comshare Management Reporting and
Analysis. Planning is a flexible solution for strategic and top-down
planning, and we expect it to be an important differentiator when it
is fully integrated with BudgetPLUS. Management Reporting and Analysis
is a fully Web-based solution, available on the major relational
databases, that helps customers broadly disseminate management
information. Both products significantly strengthen our product suite
for management planning and control with the kinds of solutions that
add substantial value to our customers' businesses."
Companies around the world and in many industries purchased
Comshare applications in the third quarter, including American
Re-Insurance Company, Checkpoint Systems, Inc., Credit Agricole AMT,
CUNA, Deloitte & Touche, Intrawest Corporation, Liberty Life Insurance
Company, L.P., NatWest Global Financial Markets, PepsiCo, Inc.,
Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospital NHS Trust, and Randstad US. |
