Accenture, Oracle, and RIM Financials

Accenture Ltd. and Research in Motion Ltd. announced their quarterly financial results while Oracle Corp. released its fourth quarter and annual earnings. In other news, Oracle offered lower guidance of its upcoming first quarter 2009 financials.

Focal Points:

• Accenture stated its third quarter revenues were $6.1 billion, an increase of 19.6 percent year over year from $5.1 billion. On a generally accepted accounting principal basis (GAAP) third quarter earnings were $469 million, up 36 percent from $345 million in the year-ago quarter. Gross margins dropped to 31.5 percent from 31.7 percent a year earlier, but new bookings grew to $6.8 billion from $6.2 billion a year ago. Company officials projected flat to slightly lower revenues for the upcoming fourth quarter.
• Research in Motion (RIM), a Canadian mobile communications company, reported another record quarter with revenues up by 107 percent from the same quarter of last year. Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 were US$2.24 billion, up from US$1.08 billion in last year's first quarter. On a GAAP basis first quarter earnings were US$482.5 million, compared with US$412.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 82 percent for devices, 13 percent for service, 3 percent for software and 2 percent for other revenue.  During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 5.4 million devices. Approximately 2.3 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter, bringing the total BlackBerry subscriber account base to over 16 million by the end of the quarter.
• Oracle announced strong fourth quarter revenues, recapturing deals it failed to close in the previous quarter. Revenues were $7.24 billion, an increase of 24 percent year over year from $5.83 billion. On a GAAP basis fourth quarter earnings were $2.04 billion, up 27 percent from $1.60 billion in the year-ago quarter. For the full fiscal year 2008, the company reported revenues of $22.4 billion, a growth of 25 percent from the prior year. On a GAAP basis net earnings for the year were $5.5 billion up 29 percent over the previous year. For the year new software license revenues grew 28 percent with database and middleware new license revenues up 24 percent and application new license revenues increasing by 38 percent. Application software revenues totaled $6.2 billion for the year while database and middleware revenues reached $11.6 billion. Oracle executives said that the fourth quarter was the first quarter where they made money in the on-demand software market, even though they have been in it for 10 years. For the upcoming first quarter, company officials stated they expect more difficult first quarter comparisons.

Experton Group believes business will remain strong for technology sales globally, as the demand for productivity and revenue-enhancing technology will not slacken even though a worldwide recession remains a possibility. As companies strive to provide new capabilities with minimum expansion of personnel, systems integrators such as Accenture will see strong demand. Similarly, hardware and software companies that can provide products and services that address enterprise business initiatives will also make gains. IT executives should focus new technology expenditures on offerings that best align with strategic and tactical business initiatives.