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With a mix of good and bad news Ariba Inc. reported its fiscal fourth quarter financial results today.
The good news: Ariba beat the consensus earning estimates of analysts surveyed by First Call, which was a 13-cents-per-share loss. The bad news: The loss was still 11 cents per share.
During the corresponding quarter last year, the business-to-business e-commerce software maker reported a small loss that was break-even on a per-share basis.
Revenue for the fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30, was $62.6 million, which resulted in a net loss for the quarter of $27.7 million.
Fiscal year 2001 revenue was up 47 percent over last year to $408.8 million, from $279 million in 2000. The net loss for fiscal year 2001 was $88.1 million, or 36 cents per share. During the fiscal year 2000, the net loss was $29.5 million, or 15 cents per share.
Bob Calderoni, who was appointed Aribas president and CEO last week, in a press release described the Sunnyvale, Calif., companys earnings as solid, despite the soft economic environment.
Like many other companies in the B2B sector, Ariba has reported poor earnings throughout the year.
During its second fiscal quarter of 2001 Ariba posted poor earnings results, laid off about 700 employees and canceled a planned acquisition of collaborative software vendor Agile Software Inc.
In the following quarter, Ariba again posted poor earnings and CEO Larry Mueller resigned after a single quarter in office.
During the most recent quarter Ariba executives responded by appointing a new CEO on Oct. 17 and announcing a new Spend Management Strategy buffered by an enhanced Ariba Enterprise Sourcing platform.
The Spend Management strategy is designed to help companies manage their entire spend lifecycle. The upgraded Enterprise Sourcing solution is geared toward helping companies reduce costs by allowing purchasing professionals to negotiate better contracts and manage vendor compliance.