Product lifecycle management software provider PTC yesterday became the latest vendor to feel the recession’s sting, reporting dramatic drops in both license revenue and net income.

With the global economic downturn bringing lengthening order cycle times and reduced spending on large deals, PTC also reduced earlier guidance on second-quarter and full-year 2009 results and announced plans for a layoff.

For its fiscal first quarter, ended Jan. 3, PTC reported $240.4 million in total revenue, down less than 1% from the first quarter of 2008. The company saw a 28.8% drop in license revenue to $50.5 million. The decline was largely offset by an 11.5% increase in services revenue — including maintenance — which totaled $190 million.

First-quarter net earnings totaled $4.7 million, down 53% from $9.9 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2008.

“Our pipeline for new business opportunities remains strong,” PTC President and CEO C. Richard Harrison said in a prepared statement. “We are, however, experiencing lengthening lead times and reduced spending on large deals, and our reseller channel is also being impacted by softening end-market demand.”

PTC becomes the latest vendor of CAD and other engineering and design software products to suffer financially from the economic downturn. Earlier this month, competitor Autodesk Inc. announced plans to restructure and cut 750 jobs in reaction to what officials called a recession-induced drop in demand.

On a conference call with analysts yesterday, Harrison said PTC’s software license revenue was weak in all geographic areas, particularly Japan. The company said it signed only nine large new deals — in excess of $1 million each — during the first quarter, bringing in $24 million compared with $32 million from large deals in the first quarter of 2008.

For the quarter, license revenue made up 21% of PTC’s total revenue, the lowest percentage in more than two years.

Maintenance revenue, meanwhile, grew 13% to $130.8 million and accounted for 54% of PTC’s total revenue, the highest level in more than two years.

Despite the recession, Harrison said, large percentages of PTC customers continue to renew maintenance contracts. Currently, he said, the company has 915,000 seats under maintenance. That is up from 899,000 at the end of the prior year. But Harrison acknowledged that PTC’s robust maintenance revenues are likely to come under pressure if the number of new customers and license revenue continues to drop.