PeopleSoft posted record worldwide licence revenue for the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2003, of $185 million, in addition to record total revenue of $685 million. This is significantly above the company`s fourth quarter guidance of $625-$640 million.
Mike Evans, MD of PeopleSoft in SA, says locally the company realised many of the synergies it expected to get out of the merger with JD Edwards (JDE).
"There were many synergies to be realised in SA, as the PeopleSoft presence was much smaller than JD Edwards`. The merger gave the company real depth in all areas: sales, marketing, professional services and, most importantly, customer support. We believed the merger would provide us with many opportunities to cross-sell the range of products into the customer base and this has already proven to be the case."
Pro forma earnings per share for the quarter was $0.20, exceeding the company`s guidance of $0.18-$0.19. Fourth quarter earnings per share, based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $0.05, significantly better than the company`s GAAP fourth quarter earnings per share guidance of $0.01-$0.02.
Pro forma operating income for the fourth quarter was $112 million, or 15.3% of revenues, up from $89 million, or 13.2% of revenues in the third quarter. GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was $24 million, or 3.5% of revenues, up from a loss of $9 million, or (1.5)% of revenues in the third quarter.
At 31 December 2003, the company`s cash and investment balances were $1.4 billion. Cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter was $85 million. Days sales outstanding (DSO) for the quarter was 61.
The fourth quarter 2003 GAAP results include charges for purchase accounting adjustments relating to the acquisition of JD Edwards, including the revenue impact of the deferred maintenance write-down to fair value, amortisation of capitalised software and intangible assets and other restructuring charges.
Evans says PeopleSoft goes into the new year as a single company. "The merger is now behind us. From our experience it was one of the smoothest mergers between two companies of this size, combining 12 000 people across 120 countries in six weeks. Now the two companies are so tightly merged, to try to part them would be like trying to take the milk out of your coffee.
"We have integrated global sales, marketing and administrative processes and an integrated product roadmap that has found favour with our customers."
Craig Conway, PeopleSoft president and CEO, says: "We started the year in an economic downturn and ended the year the second largest enterprise software company in the world.
"We couldn`t be better positioned for 2004. The strength of our new company, along with an improving economy, sets the stage for even higher value for stockholders and customers."
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