Tibco Shares Up 10 Percent After Strong 4Q Results

Tibco said its quarterly profit more than doubled from a year ago, as total revenue grew slightly to $73 million, from $71.3 million last year. License revenue in the fourth quarter was $40.1 million,a figure the company said was greater than that of its top three competitors combined.

"I work with the Tibco products and am well-aware of what the products can do. It's not surprising that their products are starting to get some recognition," said Mark Davis, manager of worldwide enterprise integration service at Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif.

This marks the second consecutive quarter of revenue growth for the Palo Alto-based company, known for high-speed messaging software used in high-volume transactions.

Tibco reported net income for the quarter calculated in accordance with GAAP was $7.6 million, or 3 cents per share. Tibco's net income a year earlier was $3.4 million, or 2 cents per share. For the full year, Tibco reported revenue of $264.2 million, down from $273.4 million in 2002, and GAAP net income of $11.4 million, or 5 cents a share. In 2002, the company reported a loss of $94.6 million, or 46 cents per share.

In a conference call with analysts, Tibco Chairman, President and CEO Vivek Ranadive said the company added 64 new customers in the fourth quarter and formed OEM relationships with Integra SP and Triple Point Technology. Existing customers accounted for more than 50 percent of total revenue for the quarter.

"The competitive landscape is very different than it was a year ago," Ranadive said. "If we are involved in a deal, we will win the deal. I can tell you in a competitive situation, I see [BEA Systems, webMethods and other EAI competitors] less than 3 percent of the time. I see IBM all of the time."