Business Objects quarterly results reveal a continued split between the success of the enterprise performance management business relative to the stagnation of the core reporting business. License revenue overall was up 9% to USD 137M, but though “information and discovery and delivery” (traditional reporting) had a decent quarter the annual licence revenue for this part of this business is actually in decline. Rather disappointingly, management will no longer publish the split of revenue between the different businesses, presumably to avoid pesky analysts pointing out that there core business is in decline.
On the positive side, the continued diversification away from reporting e.g. with its Cartesis acquisition this week, means that Business Objects has been following a sensible strategy to avoid being caught up too badly by the core reporting malaise.

As with most large software companies, services revenue plays an increasing role, up 29% from a year ago. Business Objects has always done an excellent job of sales and marketing, and this is reflected in the 12 deals of USD 1 million in size (up from nine in the corresponding quarter a year ago). Financially, cash from operations was a healthy USD 107M, with overall cash at USD 675M.