SAP Q4 Revenues Jump 11 Percent

SAP on Friday reported preliminary fourth-quarter results that showed revenue rise 11 percent to €4.5 billion (US$5.7 billion), according to IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

Software and software-related services revenue for the quarter stood at €3.72 billion, a rise of 14 percent.

IFRS operating profit jumped 206 percent to €1.67 billion, helped by SAP's previous lowering of a provision it set aside for the lawsuit Oracle filed against it and its former subsidiary TomorrowNow. The judge in the case overturned the US$1.3 billion jury award Oracle won, and gave Oracle the choice of accepting $272 million or seeking a new trial. No decision has yet been made by Oracle.

Overall, the quarter's growth came from strength in SAP's "core applications business, strong momentum for analytics and mobile solutions and accelerated growth for SAP's breakthrough technology SAP HANA," the company said in a statement.

HANA, an in-memory database platform released in June, has "significantly exceeded" SAP's €100 million revenue target for 2011, and will log some €160 million in sales, SAP said.

Fourth-quarter profits were affected by SAP's decision to hire nearly 500 additional sales and marketing employees, according to a statement.

Total revenue for the full year was €14.23 billion, a rise of 14 percent, with an operating profit of €4.88 billion, an 88 percent jump also helped by the TomorrowNow provision adjustment.

The figures released Friday are preliminary and unaudited, SAP said. SAP plans to release the final figures during its previously scheduled earnings announcement on Jan. 25.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com