Art Technology Group Inc. and Blue Martini Software Inc., companies that specialize in e-commerce and online CRM software, both joined the parade of software companies with falling first quarter earnings Thursday, though both made significant progress in reducing their net losses.
ATG saw revenues drop to $27.3 million from $43.3 million in the first quarter of 2001. License revenues took the biggest hit, falling from $25.5 million to $12.5 million. But the company did manage to trim its net loss from $12.9 million in last years first quarter to $2.8 million as it cut $4 million off its spending from the fourth quarter of 2001.
Company officials predicted a similar financial performance in the second quarter of this year, but promised that ATG would be profitable by the second half of the year.
ATG added 27 new customers in the quarter, accounting for nearly half of its license revenue, officials said.
Blue Martini, meanwhile, saw revenues get more than cut in half, falling from $21.4 million in the first quarter last year to just $8.5 million this year. The company found few new customers for its software as license revenues fell through the floor, to just $1.03 million from $8.02 million in the same period a year ago.
But like ATG, Blue Martini did manage to cut its losses, as its net loss dropped from $25.7 million to $7.3 million. Sales and marketing expenses saw the biggest drop, from $15.5 million to $6.9 million, raising questions as to whether the company can close new deals at such a reduced spending level.
Blue Martini Chairman and CEO Monte Zweben said in a statement that the companys increasing technology focus in the quarter on the manufacturing and retail verticals, particularly its acquisition earlier this month of interactive selling software vendor Cybrant Corp., should translate into improved software license revenues in future quarters.
The revenue crunch was felt by other vendors in the space this week as well. BroadVision Inc. saw first quarter revenues tumble to $30.5 million from $92.7 million in the same period a year ago. License revenues were again particularly hard hit, falling to just $8.2 million from $43.1 million in the same period last year.
In response to the falloff in business, the Redwood City, Calif., company, which has a broad suite of e-commerce, content management and personalization software, will focus intently on the enterprise portal space, cutting 300 employees from its work force in the process, company officials said.
BroadVisions net loss fell from $105.1 million in last years first quarter to $36.1 million this year.
Longtime BroadVision rival Vignette Corp., which tightened its focus on content management last year, also reported a steep drop-off in revenues in the quarter, to $46.4 million from $90.1 million in the same period a year ago. License revenues fell from $48 million to $20.5 million.
The fall-off in revenues hurt Vignettes bottom line though, as the companys net loss increased from $3.1 million to $15.8 million year-to-year, despite across-the-board cuts in expenses. To make matters worse, Vignette saw investment income slip from $5.3 million in last years first quarter to just $1.7 million this year.
