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To: Softechie who wrote (2062)	3/13/2002 11:16:15 PM
From: stephen wall	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2155

Theyre coming out of the wookwork now: Some Software Execs Question Second-Half Recovery Wed Mar 13, 9:27 PM ET HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (Reuters) - Software companies and investors that expect corporate spending to tick higher after the middle of 2002 may be in for a disappointment, industry executives said on Wednesday. "We all read the same reports. We all talk to the same customers ... People think it's going to pick up in the second half. I'm somewhat skeptical of that," Sybase Inc. Chief Executive John Chen told Reuters at the Lehman Brothers' Global Software Conference in Half Moon Bay, California. Chen expects the database and e-business software provider's revenues to post year-on-year growth of 20 percent to 30 percent in 2002, but said much of that acceleration would be fueled by sales in Asia as countries such as China build out lagging infrastructure. While relatively stable buying patterns have returned and a growing number of U.S. economic indicators appear to point to rosier times ahead, Veritas Software Corp. Chief Executive Gary Bloom is thinking along the same lines as Chen with regard to software spending. Companies laid out their spending plans at the end of 2001, and they're sticking to them, Bloom said. "Budgets are set," he said. The storage management software vendor's chief executive also noted that some companies may decide to tinker with their budgets and nudge up their allowed expenses at midyear, but only if the economic recovery is on solid footing. Even if that happens, Bloom cautioned, "people aren't going to dramatically alter spending plans." "IT departments are being asked to do more with less," said Barry Goffe, group manager of the enterprise marketing strategy group for software behemoth Microsoft Corp. . To that end, NetIQ Corp. Chief Executive Charles Boesenberg said the multimillion-dollar, multiyear deals that companies signed during the boom years are largely a thing of the past. "They buy what they need when they need it," Boesenberg said. As companies continue to cut workers to compensate for weak revenues, many also are still digesting software purchases made in preparation for Y2K and in anticipation of expanding boom-time ranks. Corporate mergers also create efficiencies that lower demand, Chen said. "A lot of tech spending is based on head count. One has to assume that demand will come back slowly," said Chen. story.news.yahoo.com