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Tibco Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) was at US$10, down 88 cents, in morning trading Thursday, after the maker of e-business software warned that the slowing economy and related drop in business spending will hurt results for the first quarter ended March 2nd.
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown was said to have downgraded Tibco stock to buy from strong buy after the announcement. First Union Securities and SG Cowen also reportedly lowered their ratings.
Tibco said that it expects revenue for the quarter to total $80 million to $84 million, up from $42 million in the year-earlier quarter but reportedly 14 to 18 percent below analyst expectations.
"The slowing U.S. economy, combined with delayed IT spending, impacted our first-quarter revenues," Tibco chairman and chief executive officer Vivek Ranadive said. "Some customers told us very late in the quarter they were postponing certain purchases until the economic environment improves."
Tibco, based in Palo Alto, California, provides software used in e-commerce and other online business applications. Its customers include Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, Ariba and AT&T (NYSE: T).
Tibco went public in July 1999 at $15 per share. The shares reached a high of $147 before falling to a low of $9.50.
For the fourth quarter ended November 30th, Tibco reported revenue of $89 million, up from $33 million in the year-earlier quarter, and income before charges of $22 million, or 10 cents per share, up from $1 million, or breakeven.
The company attributed the gains to increasing demand for its
infrastructure software.
