Sybase Reports Hefty Q1 Revenue, Earnings Growth

"We did not see any slowdowns related to the macro environment," president and CEO John Chen said in a conference call with financial analysts. "Our pipeline was very strong entering into Q1 and remains strong heading into Q2."

He went on to say that he expects moderate year-over-year growth in the second and third quarters, although not as fast as the sequential growth was from Q4 2007 to the just completed quarter, "with a uptick toward the end of the year," he said. For the second quarter ending June 30 Chen said Sybase is projecting sales of $255 million to $265 million, which would represent year-over-year growth of 4 percent to 8 percent.

For the first quarter Sybase reported earnings of $24.2 million, up 60 percent from the same period last year, on total sales of $260.1 million, up 13 percent year-over-year.

License revenue also increased 13 percent during the quarter to $78.1 million while services revenue grew 8 percent to $139.4 million. Chen said sales increased 7 percent in North America, 26 percent in Europe and 6 percent throughout the rest of the world.

Sybase is seeing solid growth in sales of its Sybase IQ analytics platform for trading and risk management applications, Chen said, and early success in new businesses such as the mobile banking service the company launched in December. The company's messaging business grew 35 percent in the quarter and revenue from a new application messaging service, which delivers automated messages such as e-mails from airlines about delayed flights, increased 60 percent, said chief marketing officer Raj Nathans in an interview.

But the company's mature data management and iAnywhere mobile software businesses, which together make up 90 percent of Sybase's sales, also recorded healthy growth during the quarter.