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SAS sales rise 12 percent; bigger jump predicted for '07(News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 14--SAS reported Tuesday that revenue rose 12 percent last year, hitting $1.9 billion as more retailers, banks and other businesses bought the Cary company's data-gathering and analysis software. SAS, the world's largest privately owned software company, doesn't release full details of its financial results, such as how much profit it made. However, the company said that it was profitable in 2006 and that its operating margin for the year, a measure of efficiency, improved from 2005. Sales from new software licenses increased 20 percent as the company added more than 1,300 customers last year, including Google, Dick's Sporting Goods, Honda and Netflix. For 2007, SAS expects to beat last year's revenue growth amid rapidly increasing demand from financial, retail and government sectors, chief marketing officer Jim Davis said. To meet that goal amid increasing competition, the company hopes to nearly double its internal U.S. sales force this year, to more than 500. It also plans to add dozens of outside resale partners, a channel it added for the first time last year to handle unmet demand, Davis said. The Americas accounted for 45 percent of total revenue in 2006. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for another 45 percent and the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 10 percent. "We had a good year," SAS co-founder and chief executive Jim Goodnight said in a prepared statement. "This year's strong financial results validate the new course we set for the company several years ago." In the early 2000s, SAS began focusing on software development for specific industries, such as financial services and retail. These sectors have been a boon to software developers such as SAS, investing heavily in data systems for regulatory compliance, fraud prevention and consumer rewards programs. Last year also marked one of the rare times when SAS, one of the Triangle's largest and most stable employers, eliminated jobs. The company reorganized its sales and marketing divisions, a move that affected nearly 200 workers. Even with the realignment, the company had a net increase of 300 jobs worldwide, to a total of 10,100. In Cary, it gained 30 jobs to 4,130. Clients use SAS software to mine large amounts of data for business trends, and increasingly to forecast demand and help optimize sales, marketing and other functions. That's where the company has an edge, Davis said. Rivals including Oracle, SAP, Business Objects and Cognos sell software that can mine, compile and report clients' business data, a field of increasing competition and falling profit margins. However, SAS specializes in software that also can analyze that data to forecast sales, optimize marketing dollars and help make business decisions, Davis said. "We have moved beyond what traditional vendors are doing," he said. Still, the competition is intent on making inroads, said Karen Haus of W.R. Hambrecht & Co., an analyst who tracks Business Objects, one of SAS's publicly traded rivals. She noted that Business Objects has acquired its way further into analytics software over the past 18 months. And larger companies such as Oracle appear keen on doing the same. "That's where the demand is," Haus said. "Five years ago, it was all about building data warehouses. Now it's about pulling data and making it usable." Staff writer Frank Norton can be reached at 829-8926 or [email protected]. Copyright (c) 2007, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |