Supply chain software provider i2 Technologies managed to do something in the second quarter that few of its enterprise software competitors have been able to do lately: The company actually grew software revenue year over year, a feat that helped keep its total revenue from taking a steeper dive.
For the three months ended June 30, sales of i2’s software solutions soared 21% to $15.3 million, a rarity among recent earnings reports from software providers. Even so, sizable drops in its services business — down 23% to $23.6 million — and maintenance sales — 16% off last year’s pace at $18.2 million — brought overall sales down 12% to $57 million, compared with $64.7 million in 2008’s second quarter.
On a conference call with analysts Thursday to announce the results, i2 CFO Mike Berry said the falloff in maintenance revenue was of concern. “Stabilizing maintenance revenue is an area of central focus for us,” he said.
In bottom-line terms, i2 faced a nearly impossible task in matching last year’s net income, which was inflated by an $83 million settlement of i2’s patent infringement lawsuit against SAP. This Q2, net income reached $10.6 million, compared with $86 million 12 months earlier. i2 is pursuing similar legal action against Oracle, which i2 says infringed a number of its patents.