• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Lawson Software License Sales Miss Expectations in Q1 Fiscal 2007

    October 9, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Lawson Software reported the first full quarter of financial results since its acquisition of Swedish ERP software provider Intentia International. The merger of the two companies has allowed Lawson to report big revenue increases, of course. But as is the case with a lot of mergers, Lawson is struggling with some issues.

    Lawson completed its acquisition of Intentia in April, and in July the company acquired Competency Assessment Solutions, a provider of Web-based performance management software for the healthcare industry. The company also said at the time that Robert Barbieri, the company’s chief financial officer, would step down. Last week, Lawson said that it had hired Robert Schriesheim to be executive vice president and chief financial officer, reporting to company president and chief executive officer, Harry Debes. Schriesheim was, for the past four years, a venture partner in ARCH Development Partners, which invests in technology companies, and was chief financial officer for Global Telesystems, a $1 billion British telecom company that was traded on the New York Stock Exchange until KPNQwest, one of many telecom conglomerates that were built during this time, bought it in October 2001. In the wake of the dot-com bubble bursting, KPNQwest went bankrupt less than a year later. Shreisheim is already a member of Lawson’s board of directors, by the way, so the company did not have to look far for a new CFO.

    Now that Lawson has an experienced bean counter at the job of counting those beans, it needs to get more beans for him to count. “We achieved our total non-GAAP revenue and non-GAAP EPS guidance ranges in this first full quarter of combined Lawson and Intentia operations,” explained Debes in a statement accompanying the financial results. “But there was one area in which we did not execute well. License fee contracting and revenue were below expectations. However, maintenance and consulting revenues were strong and expenses were well managed thereby allowing us to achieve bottom-line results in line with our expectations. The integration of our international operations and the orientation of our sales and services employees had more impact than we anticipated, but I am confident that this is now behind us. Our sales pipeline is strong, we are executing on our operating plans, and feedback from customers during the last quarter has been very positive. We’re looking forward to improved results throughout the coming quarters.”

    Specifically, Lawson posted sales of $161.8 million in the quarter ended August 31, an increase of over 84 percent compared to the year ago quarter when Intentia was not part of the picture. Consulting fees have nearly tripled to $75.5 million in the quarter, and maintenance fees rose by 60 percent to hit $69.6 million. However, even with the combination of Lawson and Intentia, sales of software licenses still dropped by 10 percent to $16.8 million. Gross profit at the company rose by 37 percent to $72.4 million, but this was not helped by the fact that the cost of software license sales more than doubled to $5 million in the quarter. And while consulting revenues nearly tripled, the cost of delivering those consulting services nearly tripled as well. Gross profits on maintenance fees are usually high at ERP software companies, and such was the case at Lawson during the quarter, with a gross profit of 80 percent. Software license fees had a gross profit of 70 percent by comparison, and consulting services had a gross profit of only 7 percent. Adding in research and development, SG&A, restructuring charges, and other costs pushed Lawson to a $16.6 million operating loss, and after adding in interest income and paying taxes, the company reported a net loss of $15.8 million, compared to a profit of $4.2 million a year ago. Clearly, Lawson is counting on a substantial uptick in software license fees in the coming quarter from the combined Lawson-Intentia product lines and sales teams to put it back in the black.

    RELATED STORIES

    Lawson Reports Preliminary Q4 Results, Loses CFO, and Buys CAS

    Lawson Stockholders Approve Intentia Acquisition

    Lawson Acquires Intentia to Rule the Midrange

    Lawson Unveils “Landmark” Project to Bring Apps to J2EE

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 40 -- October 9, 2006

    Sponsored by
    DRV Tech

    Get More Out of Your IBM i

    With soaring costs, operational data is more critical than ever. IBM shops need faster, easier ways to distribute IBM applications-based data to users more efficiently, no matter where they are.

    The Problem:

    For Users, IBM Data Can Be Difficult to Get To

    IBM Applications generate reports as spooled files, originally designed to be printed. Often those reports are packed together with so much data it makes them difficult to read. Add to that hardcopy is a pain to distribute. User-friendly formats like Excel and PDF are better, offering sorting, searching, and easy portability but getting IBM reports into these formats can be tricky without the right tools.

    The Solution:

    IBM i Reports can easily be converted to easy to read and share formats like Excel and PDF and Delivered by Email

    Converting IBM i, iSeries, and AS400 reports into Excel and PDF is now a lot easier with SpoolFlex software by DRV Tech.  If you or your users are still doing this manually, think how much time is wasted dragging and reformatting to make a report readable. How much time would be saved if they were automatically formatted correctly and delivered to one or multiple recipients.

    SpoolFlex converts spooled files to Excel and PDF, automatically emailing them, and saving copies to network shared folders. SpoolFlex converts complex reports to Excel, removing unwanted headers, splitting large reports out for individual recipients, and delivering to users whether they are at the office or working from home.

    Watch our 2-minute video and see DRV’s powerful SpoolFlex software can solve your file conversion challenges.

    Watch Video

    DRV Tech

    www.drvtech.com

    866.378.3366

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: Changing Physical File Characteristics on the Fly CL Odds and Ends

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 15 Issue: 40

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM Tweaks Various System i5 Server Deals
    • COMMON Picks Dufault as New President
    • JDA Emphasizes VARs to Attack the Retail Sector
    • Lawson Software License Sales Miss Expectations in Q1 Fiscal 2007
    • Gartner Says a Quarter of Software Sales to Go SaaS By 2011
    • IBM Tweaks Various System i5 Server Deals
    • Ask TPM: System i5–Good Investment or Not?
    • As I See It: History Makers
    • Legacy Application Modernization Strategies Hinge on SOA
    • System i Vendors Merge as Help/Systems Acquires ASC

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
    • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
    • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
    • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24
    • Big Blue Raises IBM i License Transfer Fees, Other Prices
    • Keep The IBM i Youth Movement Going With More Training, Better Tools
    • Remain Begins Migrating DevOps Tools To VS Code
    • IBM Readies LTO-10 Tape Drives And Libraries
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 23

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle