Siebel Systems Inc. saw its license revenue and net income rise sharply in the last quarter, in line with guidance the company provided previously.
In a conference call on Thursday, the San Mateo, Calif., company announced that its quarterly license revenue rose 13% over the same period last year, and net income was up 580% to $31.7 million. Earnings per share were at $0.06, up 500% over last year.
Siebel shares closed at $11.66 on the Nasdaq Thursday, down $0.19.
"We're pleased to have realized a strong Q1," said Tom Siebel, CEO. "This is a seasonally challenging quarter. It's very clear this IT recovery we're seeing is fragile. There's still geopolitical dislocation. There's quite a bit of uncertainty out there."
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In the first quarter, the company closed 229 deals for its hosted product, CRM OnDemand, the first full quarter it was available, including some deals with a large number of seats. Siebel sets itself apart from its hosted competitors by offering a hybrid form of CRM with capabilities for both hosting and on-premise, and by appealing to larger organizations, said David Schmaier, a Siebel executive vice president.
"We think that because of our presence in CRM and our ability to reach these [enterprise] customers, it will be significantly larger customers that will go with Siebel OnDemand," Schmaier said.
Competitively, Siebel goes up against SAP 9% of the time and PeopleSoft and Oracle 7% of the time, Siebel said, down slightly from last year.
Siebel offered guidance of $0.06 to $0.08 per share for the second quarter, which began April 1.