Support revenue for the most recently ended period was just over $3 billion, up 9 percent from last year's corresponding period. Support revenue increased by about $186 million over the 2013 total with cloud revenue $86 million higher than a year ago. But it's clear that the move to the cloud is accelerating. In an earnings webcast this week, CEO Bill McDermott said that annual cloud revenue run rate has hit $1.7 billion. He continued that, "Once the planned acquisition revenue of concur, we expect the share of cloud business will be ever higher. As cloud revenue continued to rise, revenue software moved the other direction, falling by 2 percent to $1.2 billion. McDermott termed results in the Americas "mixed", but focused on Latin America and did not mention the U.S. He said all companies are affected by a weakening political and macro environment, particularly in Brazil and Argentina. He also referred to unspecified execution issues.
SUPPORT REVENUE HELPS SAP Featured
This is probably not the message SAP wants delivered; but for its third quarter ended September 30, support increased as a percent of revenue to 55.7 percent of the total, up from 53.9 percent a year earlier. The software giant reported a 16-percent rise in profit to about $1.1 billion on a 5-percent rise in revenue to roughly $5.4 billion when compared to 2013's third quarter; all numbers on an IFRS basis. While cloud revenue rose by double-digit percentages, that was done on a much smaller base.
