Ongoing economic uncertainty undermined SAP AG’s third-quarter financial results, leading to a 31% reduction in software license revenue and prompting the enterprise application market leader to lower its projections for the rest of 2009.
Despite the slump in SAP’s software revenue, however, increases in support and subscription revenue as well as reduced operating expenses allowed the company to improve operating margins and increase net earnings by 12% in the period ended Sept. 30, 2009, the company reported today.
SAP said it now expects 2009 non-GAAP software and software-related service revenue to decline 6% to 8%. (The non-GAAP figures exclude expenses related to SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects.) As recently as July, SAP said it expected 2009 software and software-related service revenue to decline 4% to 6% from 2008 figures.
In response to the revised outlook and third-quarter results, SAP’s shares slipped approximately 10% in trading late today.