SOFTWarE
Tieto moves date forward
Mkt cap
Price (4
% month
) P/E ratio
10.03.08 - 10.04.08
change 4m
DSGi, now with new CEO John Browett in place, issued a second profits
Stonesoft 0.28 8 16 -
warning last week, and shares fell 7%. “The trading environment since we
last reported has remained challenging across our markets, particularly in the
Dassault 37.23 4 4347 22
UK, Italy and Spain,” he says. The first phase of the Chief Executive’s
SAP 33.49 5 40001 - business review will be presented on 15 May 2008. “While like for like sales
patterns are broadly in line with those we reported over the Christmas period,
Software AG 5.23 0 30 12
it is clear that customers have become increasingly promotion and deal driven,
Update 3.70 -5 38 10
impacting gross margins.”
Exact Software 22.84 -15 557 14
The UK & Ireland Electricals business has seen good demand in response to
Unit 4 Agresso 18.51 4 476 19
promotions on flat panel televisions, laptops and large white goods, particularly
IFS 0.65 0 164 -
over the Easter period. However demand outside of these promotions has
been lower than expected, with a negative impact on margins.
Autonomy (£) 12.09 10 2584 50
Sage (£) 2.49 -1 3249 15
Overall sales in UK Computing remain disappointing, despite reasonable
demand for laptops and games consoles. Sales of stand alone non-hardware
products were lower year on year, in line with the trends previously reported.
Ariba 5.73 4 486 -
The Nordics, Greece and Central European businesses all delivered satisfactory
Autodesk 20.73 3 4773 22
performances over the second half of our financial year. Trading in Spain
remains difficult, while the performance in Italy remains disappointing, not
BEA Systems 12.16 0 5039 38
helped by the difficult economic environment. At least the e-commerce
BMC 19.87 -7 3818 22 businesses continues to grow strongly, he says.
BroadVision 0.71 2 77 7
DSG’s dilemma, which Browett needs to address is that selling off, say the
Benelux business would bring in perhaps €1.6bn. The valuation of the group as
CA 14.39 2 7390 30
a whole is not currently much more than this, so it might be tempting to sell
some parts - private capital fund would certainly think so. But in the longer
CDC Corp 2.60 -1 32 232
term, the group needs to be kept together for buying power and distribution
CheckPoint Systems 17.16 13 684 19
efficiency. Can it make the e-business grow faster in such tough markets? Then
it could step away from the high rent high street shops, but right now it needs
Chordiant 3.30 -14 110 10
those outlets as part of its marketing of special offers.
Citrix 20.49 -1 3797 27
TietoEnator will publish its first quarter interim report this week just after our
deadline. The company had earlier announced that it would report on 24 April,
Compuware 4.58 -4 1255 16
but faced with a bid, it wants to ensure that investors have relevant and up-
EMC 9.33 -2 19598 19
to-date information on the company’s financial performance well before the
offer period ends on 28 April. TietoEnator’s Board of Directors are publishing
Hyperion 1.96 5 13 11
a statement and recommendation to shareholders concerning the offer not
i2 Technologies 7.21 -10 155 21 later than five working days before the offer period ends as required by the
Securities Market Act in Finland. This timing allows shareholders to review
Intuit 17.57 4 5758 23
the statement and the quarterly report thoroughly before making decisions
Lawson 26.83 5 2672 22
concerning their ownership in TietoEnator. The view of the Board is still that
McAfee 21.33 1 3463 33
the offer does not reflect the true value of TietoEnator, its revised strategy
and the Performance Improvement Programme.
Microsoft 18.31 4 170420 16
Novell 3.85 -2 1357 -
Basware managed to improve net sales to €18.233m (€17.038m) with growth of
7.0%, but operating profit fell to €254,000 (€1.409m) - a decrease of 118.1%.
Oracle 12.82 6 66021 21
Outlook for 2008: Basware expects the growth of net sales for the financial
Pervasive 2.78 17 55 23
year to be from 15 to 25% compared with the previous year. The first quarter
of the year is milder in growth resulting from the high level of the restated
Red Hat 12.56 14 2441 55
comparative figures for the first quarter of 2007. Operating profit (EBIT) is
Salesforce 40.10 12 4735 422
expected to be from 10 to 15% of net sales.


Please note that for consistency, we are now showing all companies with
Research released by Ernst & Young has revealed that profit warnings in the
their share prices converted to Euros unless indicated
(UK-based) Software & Computer Services FTSE sector rose by 44% in the first
quarter of 2008, reversing the trend of declining warnings in the sector seen

throughout 2007.
S

ource: Thomson Financial Datastream
28 18 apr 2008
It0807 - 26-31_financials.indd 28 16/04/2008 11:00:10
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