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Lynton Research Digest - 4th February 2004

We're slap bang in results season with numbers from Ascential (magic), Persistence (only just better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick), SeeBeyond (breakeven, so who cares about falling revenue) and Vitria (very so so)...

Ascential Q4 results - rocketing revenue

Q4/2003 revenue was $64.5 million, up 89 percent from $34.1 million in Q4/2002, and up 40 percent from $45.9 million in the Q3/2003. License revenue was $30.0 million, up 59 percent from $18.8 million in Q4/2002, and up 34 percent from $22.4 million in Q3/2003. Net income, including a tax benefit of $16.5 million, was $17.3 million, compared to a net loss of $10.2 million in Q4/2002, and a net loss of $1.7 million in the Q3/2003.

For the year ended December 31, 2003, on a GAAP basis, total revenue was $185.6 million, including $92.6 million in license revenue, compared with total revenue of $113.0 million, including $59.6 million in license revenue, in the prior year. Net income for 2003 was $15.8 million compared with a net loss of $63.6 million in the prior year.

The company is currently anticipating Q1 revenue of $61 - $64 million, reflecting seasonality in software sales. For the full year 2004, the company anticipates revenue towards the high end of the range of $265 million to $275 million.

See EE Times: Ascential reports fourth quarter revenues.

Interesting that the Q4 cash outflow to pay for Mercator was largely covered by an inflow of payments for employee share options. What a joy is a rising share price!

Cape Clear announces Data Interchange

Here's something I missed from last month; Cape Clear Data Interchange is described as "the first Web Services-based approach to solving the problem of integrating data with enterprise applications." See Cape Clear Announces Web Services-Based Real-Time Data Integration.

It's shameless really. Given that people like Insevo, iWay and Librados have been doing this web services based integration for years, calling it "the first" seems like a little sexing up has been going on (ooer, a topical reference there).

DataMirror's Pointbase 4.8 updates UniSync

As well as adding significant database features (like roll-forward recovery) the latest version of Pointbase's Java embedded database includes an upgraded UniSync which they claim can support many more Pointbase Micro spokes per hub. UniSync supports platform-independent, bi-directional synchronization (incremental or full refresh) with Oracle, SQL Server and other JDBC compliant databases. See ebizQ: PointBase Makes A Point: Unwraps Upgraded Offerings.

Coming so soon after DataMirror took full control, I wonder how long it will be before we see a sharing of technology between UniSync and DataMirror's Transformation Server.

Enterprise Service Bus - gaining traction

ZDNet UK's Gary Flood reviews the progress of ESB - with comments from IDC's Rob Hailstone and Meta Group's Christophe Toulemonde as well as a quote from ESB pioneers - SpiritSoft CTO Rob Davies, and Sonic VP Dave Chappell. Gary also reminds us that Microsoft's upcoming Indigo project is ESB-like. See ZDNet: ESB: The lighter alternative for integration.

Latest senior Oracle exec to leave goes to Informatica

Sohaib Abbasi - responsible for Oracle (SQL*)Forms, Reports and other development tools for most of the last two decades, has left Oracle to become a director of Informatica.

Another of the familiar faces from Oracle's glory days leaves; soon the only one left from my days will be Larry himself!

Persistence Q4 and 2003 results; plughole beckons?

Positive income in Q4, but declining revenues - annual sales are down to $9.3 million from $14.6 million in 2002, $19.4 million in 2001, and $25.3 million in 2000; only saved by continuing cost cutbacks. All too depressing! See Persistence Software Announces Fourth Quarter Financial Results.

Persistence ships Eclipse plug-ins for Model-Driven Architecture

Presumably desperate for any revenue, Persistence has released plug-ins for Eclipse that will automatically generate application components such as BMPs and Persistent Data Objects (PDOs) for Java or J2EE applications. Future versions of the Persistence Plug-Ins for Eclipse will add support for C++, C# and .NET platforms. See Persistence embraces Eclipse Platform...

OmniReplicator supports DB2 UDB

Privately held Lakeview Technology has upgraded OmniReplicator to support IBM's DB2 UDB on Unix, Linux and Windows. OmniReplicator is one of the most mature (elderly?) data integration products around - originally developed at Praxis in 1994, and acquired by Lakeview in 1998 - although its market presence has never seemed (at least, here in Europe) to match its better known changed data propagation competitors like DataMirror (with whom it also competes in the HA market with the MIMIX product range).

See Business Integration Journal: Lakeview Technologies Adds IBM DB2 UDB Support to OmniReplicator.

This helps to confirm the reawakening of the data integration market. After three years or so when it seemed everything had to be EAI, BPM or otherwise process oriented - failing which, business analytics - I'm getting the distinct impression that data-level integration vendors have realised that there are good reasons why people still buy their products; combine that with the flickering recovery, and that means another wave of - well, perhaps "innovation" is overdoing it, but product "refreshment" certainly.

PolarLake licenses Librados adapters

Librados - precocious new kid on the integration block - gets another route to market for its surprisingly large range of adapters; PolarLake gets a credible means to integrate its range of XML brokers with enterprise systems - applications like SAP and PeopleSoft, databases like IMS, transactional systems like CICS, and many more. See ebizQ: PolarLake, Librados Link Up In Partnership Pact.

Reuters takes $504 million from TIBCO sale

Reuters has sold 60 million shares of Tibco Software for $411 million, or $6.85 per share, reducing its stake in the California-based business integration software firm to 13.5%. See Finextra: Reuters rakes in $504 from Tibco sale.

SeeBeyond results - break even surprise

Revenue for Q4 to December 31, 2003, was $40.8 million compared to $32.4 million in the prior quarter and $40.5 million in the fourth quarter of the prior year. License revenue for the fourth quarter was $20.4 million compared to $11.2 million in the prior quarter and $18.5 million for the prior year's fourth quarter. Total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2003, was $137.8 million, compared to $150.8 million in 2002. License revenue for the full year 2003 was $51.8 million compared to $67.2 million for the prior year. The Company's international business generated 45% of total revenue for the fourth quarter 2003, and 41% for the full year 2003. Net GAAP income for the quarter was $759,000 compared to a net loss of $11.6 million per share in the prior year's fourth quarter. See SeeBeyond Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2003 Financial Results.

SeeBeyond claims a total customer base now of "more than 1,880". Q1/2004 revenue is forecast to be in the range of $36.0 million to $38.0 million - only a tad more than Q1/2003's $35.8m. The company seems heavily dependent on services and support revenue rather than new sales - but its recent $28 million NHS subcontract with BT should help to smooth the next few quarters.

Vitria results - a curate's egg

Q4/2003 total revenue was $21.3 million, compared with $20.1 million for Q4/2002 and $18.8 million for Q3/2003. License revenue was $8.3 million compared with $6.0 million for Q4/2002 and $7.1 million for Q3/2003. GAAP loss was $430,000 compared with a net loss of $12.4 million for Q4/2002 and a net loss of $3.7 million for Q3/2003. Gary Velasquez, president and CEO of Vitria says: "In one year, we have stabilized the company's financial position, as well as developed new solutions for the healthcare, financial services and telecommunications markets."

The annual figures - not stressed in the release - show revenue of $30.1 million (down from $36.0m), license revenue of $50.6m (down from $61.3m) but sharply reduced costs, giving a net loss of $30.9m, itself down from a loss of $93.6m in 2002. Cash is sharply down from $42.4m to $8.8m.

Meanwhile Vitria has sold its Chinese operations at a loss to QiLinSoft, a company controlled by Vitria founder JoMei Chang and her husband, Vitria CTO Dale Skeen. Dr Chang has effectively retired from day to day operations at Vitria - though she is still on the board.

See Vitria Announces Fourth Quarter Results (pdf), and San Jose Business Journal: Vitria slashes loss despite lower revenues.

Vitria will be hoping that it has turned the corner, as there is considerably less fat to burn off now; less margin of error if new products take longer to bring to market (or new markets bite them back, as China has done).


Revision r1.6 - 04 Feb 2004 - 11:19 GMT
Parents: Lynton Research > 2004 > Feb04
Copyright © 2001-2004 Nigel Thomas. External material referenced from this page is the property of its respective authors.