PSC's glossy annual report showed up this week. I don't have the motivation to go through it in detail, but a glance or two picked up a couple interesting bits.
One being that I was amused that one of the featured quotes was from Pam Lopker... I wonder if they knew about the Forte deal when they arranged that?
But, check this out...
Progression from 1993 to 1997 of total revenue (in M$):
117 139 180 177 188
So, looks like a blip with modest resumed growth, right? But now look at the pattern for licenses alone:
74 88 110 93 96
Again, recovery, but instead of being ahead of 1995, it is still well below, the difference being made up with maintenance and services. License revenue is now down to 51% of total revenue. And, check out this progression for cost of revenue:
16 22 32 39 41
I.e., while total revenue has gone up 4.5% over 1995, cost of revenue has gone up 29%
Or, how about the fact that in 1993 sales and marketing expenses were 22% of license revenue and in 1997 they were 91% of license revenue!
Might make one wonder if this carefully balanced financial machine was beginning to show a little strain.... |
