Tibco Falls on Warnings, Downgrades

Tibco Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) was at US$10, down 88 cents, in morning trading Thursday, after the maker of e-business software warned that the slowing economy and related drop in businessspending will hurt results for the first quarter ended March 2nd.

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown was said to have downgraded Tibco stock to buyfrom strong buy after the announcement. First Union Securities and SG Cowenalso reportedly lowered their ratings.

Tibco said that it expects revenue for the quarter to total $80 million to $84million, up from $42 million in the year-earlier quarter but reportedly 14to 18 percent below analyst expectations.

“The slowing U.S. economy, combined with delayed IT spending, impacted ourfirst-quarter revenues,” Tibco chairman and chief executive officer VivekRanadive said. “Some customers told us very late in the quarter they werepostponing certain purchases until the economic environment improves.”

Tibco, based in Palo Alto, California, provides software used in e-commerceand other online business applications. Its customers include Cisco Systems,Yahoo!, Ariba and AT&T.

Tibco went public in July 1999 at $15 per share. The shares reached a high of $147before falling to a low of $9.50.

For the fourth quarter ended November 30th, Tibco reported revenue of $89million, up from $33 million in the year-earlier quarter, and income beforecharges of $22 million, or 10 cents per share, up from $1 million, orbreakeven.

The company attributed the gains to increasing demand for itsinfrastructure software.

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