BMC Touts Earnings, Eyes Marimba

BMC Software on Thursday revealed plans to buy change management company Marimba with its fourth-quarter earnings announcement.

Houston-based BMC reported earnings of $36.9 million on $400.2 million in sales for the fourth quarter ended March 31. That compared with earnings of $20.6 million on sales of $380.7 million for the year-ago period.

The company also said licensing books were up 35 percent year-over-year.

For the year, BMC reported a loss of $26.8 million on sales of $1.41 billion, compared with earnings of $48 million on sales of $1.32 billion the prior year.

BMC CFO George Harrington said cash flow from operations reached $506.5 million for the year, which exceeded the company's earlier guidance of between $400 million to $450 million.

"We stengthened our balance sheet with over $1.2 billion in cash and marketable securities and over $1.4 billion in total deferred revenue at [the end of the] quarter," he said.

Harrington also said the company's expenses were higher than expected, rising about $11 million sequentially, primarily because of what he said was a strong increase in deferred revenue. "We also had an equity write-down of $4 million that impacted our income," he said.

During the earnings call, BMC announced a merger agreement with Marimba, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of change management technology.

The deal will cost BMC approximately $239 million, BMC executives said. Marimba's product line will be integrated into BMC's Business Service Management offerings.