SAP earnings dinged by TomorrowNow trial
Legal battle with Oracle takes a financial toll, but otherwise results are solid in the fourth quarter, with revenue up 35 percent from a year ago.
SAP's fourth-quarter profit was hurt by a hefty payment to Oracle over the TomorrowNow lawsuit, but the software company's operations showed improvement.
The enterprise applications giant reported fourth-quarter earnings of 437 million euros ($596 million) on revenue of 4.06 billion euros, up 27 percent from a year ago. The company delivered software revenue of 1.51 billion euros, up 35 percent from a year ago. Software and software-related service revenue was 3.27 billion euros, up 27 percent. For 2010, SAP reported earnings of 1.82 billion euros on revenue of 12.46 billion euros.
However, those results were obscured by a 933 million euro payout after Oracle won $1.3 billion in damages in the TomorrowNow trial. Oracle sued SAP over TomorrowNow, a third-party maintenance unit, for intellectual-property theft. SAP said that intends to file post-trial motions to lower the damage award to Oracle. The company added that it may file an appeal.
Read more of "SAP: Solid fourth quarter earnings; TomorrowNow saps profits" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.