Software giant bucks trend
July 12, 2012
The biggest software producer in Europe, SAP, announced on Thursday that its revenues had exploded in the second quarter of 2012. It reported profits of 920 million euros ($1.12 billion) for the period from April through June.
Overall second-quarter revenues rose by 18 percent to total 3.9 billion euros, while sales in software and software-relates services proper climbed by 26 percent year-on-year.
"Our record results speak for themselves, with double-digit growth in all our business regions," SAP said in a statement. "Despite a volatile international environment, we succeeded in reaching the upper end of our targets for the second quarter."
Analysts caught unawares
SAP said record-high revenues were helped by favorable exchange rates and the recent takeover of cloud software producer SuccessFactor. The company hired an additional 1,500 employees to facilitate research and distribution.
The announcement saw the price of SAP's shares up by five percent in afternoon trading, making the company the biggest gainer in Germany's blue-chip DAX-30 index.
Before the company announced its second-quarter figures, SAP shares weredown 1.5 percent, with the majority of analysts expecting the software giant to slump again after disappointing Q1 results.
hg/pfd (Reuters, dapd, dpa)