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Kas Thomas

Day reports sunny results for 1H2009

30-Jul-2009

Tags: Digital and Media Asset Management, Web Content Management, Selecting Technology, Vendor Viability & Financials, Adobe CQ, Adobe CQ5

Despite the dour financial environment, there are companies making money in the WCM space. One firm that appears to be doing quite well is WCM and DAM vendor, Day Software (based in Basel, Switzerland), whose first-half '09 financial results -- released yesterday -- might serve as an inspiration to other CMS vendors (at least, those not in direct competition with Day).

When last we wrote about Day, the financial news was, at best, mixed. As you may recall, we reported back in February that Day Software experienced a net loss in 2008 of CHF 12.0M on 27.8M in income, versus a net profit of CHF 7.0M on 25.0M of income in 2007. Corresponding, as they did, with the timing of the worldwide economic downturn, those numbers were not terribly surprising.

But the recession appears to be over, for Day. A public company (SIX:DAYN, OTCQX:DYIHY), Day Software says it saw total revenues increase by 33% (to CHF 17.0M) for the first half of 2009 versus the same period in 2008. Pre-tax net income was a respectable CHF 2.0M, although 235K of that was foreign-exchange gain.

License revenue, which for most software companies has been shrinking as a percentage of total revenue, accounted for a healthy 42% of Day's top line, at CHF 7.2M, an increase of 26% from 1H2008. At CHF 5.4M, support and maintenance revenue constituted 32% of Day's total first-half revenue (up 23% from 1H2008), with services accounting for CHF 4.4M (up almost 70% from the prior year).

Day attributes the sunny financial performance to a variety of factors, including 18 new customer deals in Q2 (among them, "a major new win at Adobe"), and "significant reorders" as a result of uptake of DAM and Social Collaboration offerings by Day customers. In addition, the company points to major investments in its sales organization and operational efficiencies from earlier restructuring efforts.

Let us not forget, though, that Day released a long-awaited (and we do mean long-awaited) major upgrade to its flagship Communiqué product late in 2008 -- perfect timing for creating a rush of income in 2009. There have also been major and minor upgrades, in 2009, for the CQ DAM offering. 

Whatever the reason(s), numbers are numbers and profits are profits. And it looks like Day and its shareholders have legitimate cause to break out the party hats and champagne, at this point. Or whatever it is they break out in Basel, when the going gets good.