License sales down for BEA
On Wednesday, infrastructure and portal vendor BEA reported below-expected results for its first quarter. License revenues fell more than 30% from $169 million last quarter to about $115 million this quarter. BEA cited in its press release a "difficult selling environment, especially in the Americas" and "several changes in our sales organization." The WebLogic family recently hit a bump and appears to be in some decline, although BEA's other portal product, AquaLogic, apparently enjoyed a second strong quarter. BEA's total revenues did not dip as much as license revenue, perhaps signaling a transition from licensing to services. Or perhaps BEA simply sells too many products for its small size. North American customers may be reducing spending, but competing vendors are performing reasonably well, witnessed by recent earnings from Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. After two disappointing quarters, we're paying closer attention to the future of WebLogic Portal in particular.