Red Hat News Desk
Red Hat $252 Million Short of Its Bogey
Also announced a $300 million stock repurchase charter to replace the existing $250 million one
Mar. 30, 2010 08:00 AM
Virtualization Track at Cloud Expo
Red Hat still can't call itself a billion-dollar company. A billion dollar is its "milestone revenue goal" and it look like it's gonna be a few more years before it gets there. Revenues for the fiscal year ended February 28 totaled $748.2 million, up 15%, with subscriptions coming in at $638.7 million, up 18%. Earnings totaled $87.3 million or 45 cents a share (59 cents non-GAAP).
On the other hand, Red Hat's rocky competitor Novell, whose future is currently uncertain, just broke even in the Linux business in January.
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The company's Q4 numbers were up but there was something about them that caused Wall Street to pull back on the news. Reuters, quoting Jefferies, suggested it was the deferred revenue of $645.9 million, up 19%, rather than the $672 million looked for.
Red Hat realized $23.4 million, or 12 cents a share, up 44%, on revenues of $195.9 million, up 18% in the quarter. On a non-GAAP basis that was 19 cents a share, beating the 16-cent Wall Street forecast on $193.3 million.
Subscriptions worked out to 86% of revenue or $169.9 million, up 21%. Training and services were flat to down. Red Hat said it renewed 24 of its top 25 deals at a 130% price improvement; some technology company dropped out although Red Hat said it's gotten an equivalent deal with another division.
It also closed a multimillion-dollar deal for JBoss middleware with some big bank, 18 deals around the million-dollar mark and three deals over $5 million. Sixty percent of the top 30 deals called for Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform, its pricier spread with unlimited virtualization. It fancies it can be an alternative to VMware.
The company is projecting revenues of $835 million-$850 million this year, up 12%-14% and non-GAAP earnings of 71 cents-74 cents, This quarter it's thinking $202 million-$204 million returning 17 cents or 18 cents non-GAAP.
It is expecting to benefit from the shift to virtualization and cloud as well as its middleware and claims share wins.
Red Hat also announced a $300 million stock repurchase charter to replace the existing $250 million one. It has $970.2 million in the bank.
About Maureen O'GaraMaureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara
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