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Software Stocks Fall on Hard Times

By Reuters
Published | Updated

NEW YORK – Shares of a raft of leading software companies fell on Tuesday after the firms said pressure from the U.S economy and the global slowdown in information technology spending would wallop results for the latest quarter.

Shares of major software firms -- including BroadVision Inc., E.piphany Inc., Rational Software Corp., and Check Point Software Technologies Inc. -- all tumbled after the companies warned that earnings and revenues would fall short of analysts estimates.

BroadVision, which warned of a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss and said its chief financial officer resigned, was off 88 cents, or 18 percent, at $4.04; E.piphany was down $1.06, or 10 percent, at $9.45 on Tuesday after warning of a larger-than-expected loss on Monday. Bucking the trend, i2 Technologies Inc. was up 24 cents at $18.47 following its warning early Tuesday.

Rational Software, which warned on Monday that its quarterly results could fall short of forecasts, was down $5.33, or 19 percent, at $22.13. Check Point Software, which warned its revenues would be lower-than-expected, but earnings would meet estimates, tumbled 12.48 percent, or $6.36, to $44.59.

``One of the things I would take away from this so far is that, like last quarter, the economy sucks, but the winners and losers are continuing to be separated,'' Tom Berquist, an analyst with brokerage firm Goldman Sachs told Reuters.

Berquist said there was about half a dozen or so large software vendors, including Siebel Systems Inc., Mercury Interactive Corp., PeopleSoft Inc., and SAP AG that will be able to ``sneak by'' and just miss the effects of the economy.

``I'd say that the more e-business and Internet related the product, the greater the chance it's in trouble right now,'' Berquist said. He named companies such as BroadVision, Art Technology Group., Commerce One Inc., Ariba Inc., Selectica Inc., Blue Martini Software Inc., and Firepond Inc. as good examples of those in the firing line.

``There's a real question about their survivability and market demand,'' Berquist said.