Date Posted: 12/4/2008
Sage Software Sees Lower Revenue, Profits, Job Cuts
By Sarah Tolkoff - 12/3/2008
Orange County Business Journal Staff
Sage Software Inc., the Irvine-based maker of business software and a unit of Britain's Sage Group PLC, saw sales and profits dip for the 12 months through September.
Sage Software’s North American division saw sales of $987 million, down 3% from $1.2 billion for the same period a year earlier.
It reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $173 million, down 14% from a year ago.
Sage said it has about 3 million North American customers and added more than 200,000 in the past 12 months.
Sage, which is publicly traded in London, reports results twice a year.
Its North American headquarters are run out of a large campus in Irvine.
The company, which sells software that automates office tasks in accounting, human resources and customer relationship management for small businesses, has about 500 workers here.
Earlier this year Sage brought in telecommunications industry veteran Sue Swenson to help work through some growing pains from a restructuring and to double sales in the next few years.
Last year, the company decentralized U.S. operations to help independent resellers of its software work more efficiently with Sage’s some 2 million customers.
The company’s structure has changed dramatically as it digests 20 acquisitions it’s made in the past 10 years.
Its decentralized model consists of business units in Irvine, Beaverton, Ore., Tampa, Fla., and McLean, Va.
The business management division out of Irvine accounted for 47% of total sales in the past year.
In the same announcement, Sage said it’s set to cut some 150 jobs from its North American operations. The company didn’t specify how many of them would be local.
Swenson cited “the challenging economic climate in North America” and a need to “reduce costs and increase the efficiency of the business” as reasons for the layoffs.
Source Website: http://www.ocbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=94063075.248588.1716039.41950602.8775278.154&aID2=131994
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