Despite a significant decline in software license sales, mid-market ERP provider Epicor eked out a 2% increase in revenue in the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, 2009, and remained solidly in the black.
For the fourth quarter, total revenue reached $121.9 million, up from the year-earlier total of $119.7 million. License sales took a big hit, falling 34% to $25.2 million in the quarter. But strong performances in Epicor’s consulting business, where revenue spiked 8% to $38.1 million, and its maintenance wing, which surged 14% to $47.3 million, helped right the ship.
Epicor’s “hardware and other” category, typically a minor blip on the balance sheet, also scored big in the fourth quarter, growing more than 100% to $11.4 million. Officials portrayed the spike as an anomaly.
Still, that bounty failed to straighten out a sagging bottom line, as fourth-quarter net income sank 87% to $2.9 million, from $22.5 million a year earlier. Sharply higher software development costs — likely attributable mainly to the new Epicor 9 product, which began shipping in December — ate away at profits, as did a $4.4 million restructuring charge associated with the company’s November decision to cut 10% of its workforce.