Marimba Beats Estimates

Marimba Inc., on Tuesday reported fiscal fourth quarter revenue and earnings that beat analysts expectations.

The Mountain View, Calif., maker of server, desktop and embedded technologies for enterprises to manage applications said that its 2001 fourth quarter revenues were $10.8 million, up from the $10.0 million for the third quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2000 revenues were $11.3 million.

Pro forma net loss for the fourth quarter – which excludes expenses considered normal under generally accepted accounting principles – was $987,000, compared to a loss of $2.7 million for third quarter and $1.7 million for the same quarter one year ago.

These fourth quarter numbers produced a “diluted net loss” per share of 4 cents, excluding $535,000 in one-time charges for amortization of deferred stock compensation.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting a loss of 8 cents per share on revenue of $10 million this quarter.

Including the non-cash charge, net loss for the fourth quarter of 2001 was $1.5 million, or a diluted net loss per share of 6 cents. Sequentially the pro forma numbers improved considerably over the third quarter of 2001, which saw a net loss of $3.3 million, or 14 cents per diluted share.

“Were pleased to announce that weve narrowed our pro forma net loss to less than $1 million on solid license revenue growth, and achieved additional operational efficiencies during the fourth quarter,” said Marimba President and CEO Rich Wyckoff, in a conference call Thursday. “Overall we were pleased with our performance during the quarter, achieving sequential license revenue growth of 13 percent.”

In the quarter Marimba picked up a number of new customers for its Server Management and Desktop/Mobile Management technologies, including, in October, Peregrine Systems, Inc., which will place Marimba Desktop/Mobile Management software and Embedded Management technology in its products, including Xanadu, an asset management appliance for small and mid-sized businesses.

Marimba also announced in November that it would provide Embedded Management support for new Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE.NET.

“Looking ahead to the first half of 2002, were planning major releases across all of our product lines, with additional enhancements to our technology core, advancements in ease of use and deployment, and additional third-party integrations,” said Wyckoff.

In other news, Marimba announced on Tuesday that Mark Garrett, formerly of Homestead Technologies, Inc., a privately held Web site building and hosting service, would be Marimbas new vice president of finance and chief financial officer, effective immediately. He replaces Ken Owyang, who will remain with Marimba to help with the transition.