VMware turns in a strong fourth quarter

VMware delivered a strong fourth quarter and raised its outlook for 2012.

The virtualization leader reported fourth-quarter earnings of $200 million, or 46 cents a share, on revenue of $1.06 billion, up 27 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 62 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for non-GAAP earnings of 60 cents a share on revenue of $1.05 billion.

For 2011, VMware reported earnings of $724 million, or $1.68 a share, on revenue of $3.77 billion.

As for the outlook, VMware projected first-quarter sales in a range between $1.015 billion and $1.04 billion, up 20 percent to 23 percent from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $1.02 billion for the first quarter. Revenue for 2012 is expected to be $4.475 billion to $4.6 billion. Wall Street was looking for $4.5 billion.

In a statement, VMware CEO Paul Maritz said that the company is working to provide products that “go beyond cost reduction” and deliver “competitive value.” VMware has been pushing up the IT stack and wants to be the data center and cloud operating system. In addition, the company has also pushed into mobile virtualization.

By the numbers:

• License revenue in the fourth quarter was $513.7 million with services sales checking in at $546.5 million.
• VMware delivered free cash flow of $1.95 billion for 2011.
• Cash, equivalents and short-term investments were $4.51 billion.

This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "VMware Q4 shines: Aims to 'go beyond cost reduction'."