CA Reports Healthy Third Quarter

Revenue for the Islandia, N.Y., technology vendor was up 9 percent from the same quarter a year ago, according to CA.

CA President and CEO-elect John Swainson credited the company's compliance-related products, such as the eTrust security brand, for driving what he called "a good quarter."

On the security front, CA's identity and access management products helped revenue from the vendor's Technology Services group increase 8 percent year-over-year to $64 million for the third quarter.

Swainson, who joined CA in November, said the overall IT spending environment remains cautious.

"I think demand is modestly improving. But I see a lot of caution out there still. There is much more financial discipline on the part of customers than just a few years ago," Swainson said.

Still, Swainson said companies have little choice but to comply with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, and that CA is positioned to take advantage of budget allocations for compliance-related spending. "We are seeing them spend money on [compliance], and certainly we are positioned in the right spaces," he said.

COO Jeff Clarke said CA is seeing traction from its growth initiatives. "Our channel business performed well this quarter, up 17 percent, and security continues to be a strong segment of our business, with more than 94 percent bookings growth," he said.

With the Netegrity acquisition going as planned, Swainson said to expect more acquisitions from CA as the opportunities arrive. "We will continue to look for attractive opportunities to round out our portfolio," he said.

Swainson also noted changes made to CA's executive structure this week. Russ Artzt, formerly CA's executive vice president of eTrust solutions, was named executive vice president for products. Mark Barrenechea, formerly CA's executive vice president of product development, was named executive vice president of technology strategy and chief technology architect.

The changes were outlined in a letter to CA employees from Swainson. In that letter, Swainson explained that by moving Artzt from brand-oriented duties to an overarching role that manages all CA products, CA takes a step closer to moving from a "brand unit" management structure to a "business unit" structure.