SAP Reports 11 Percent Q4 Sales Growth

The sales and earnings figures released Friday were preliminary. Final numbers and information about the company's outlook for 2012 will be released on January 25, the company said.

SAP reported that sales for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 reached $5.7 billion, up 11 percent from $5.1 billion in the same quarter one year ago. Operating profit was $2.1 billion, up 206 percent from $684 million in the same quarter one year earlier.

Software revenue in the quarter hit $2.2 billion, up 16 percent from $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter in 2010. Software and software-related revenue was $4.7 billion, up 14 percent from $4.1 billion in the same quarter one year earlier.

SAP said it had "outstanding growth" in its core applications business, strong momentum for analytics and mobile software, and significant growth for its HANA in-memory database -- the latter generating some $203 million in sales in the quarter.

SAP's quarterly growth contrasts sharply with archrival Oracle, which last month reported markedly slower software sales for its second quarter ended Nov. 30. While Oracle's total software sales were up a respectable 7 percent in the quarter, sales of new software licenses grew only 2 percent and sales of new software licenses for applications – the area where Oracle competes most directly with SAP – actually fell 2 percent.

For all of fiscal 2011 SAP reported sales of $18.0 billion, up 14 percent from $15.8 billion in fiscal 2010. Operating profit was $6.2 billion, up 88 percent from $3.3 billion in 2010.

Software revenue hit $5.0 billion in fiscal 2011, up 22 percent from $4.1 billion in fiscal 2010. Software and software-related revenue was $14.3 billion, up 16 percent from $12.4 billion.