Lawson Software reports fiscal 1st-quarter profit on lower expenses, says it will cut 75 jobs

Lawson Software reports fiscal 1st-qtr profit

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Lawson Software Inc. said Wednesday it earned a profit in its fiscal first quarter, as lower revenue was offset by a drop in expenses.

Shares of the software company, which also said it would cut 75 jobs, rose 51 cents, or 8 percent, to $6.75 in after-hours trading. The stock had finished regular trading at $6.24.

For the quarter that ended Aug. 31, Lawson earned $6 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3.7 million, or 2 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. When excluding one-time items, the company earned 9 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude special items from their estimates, expected a profit of 5 cents per share.

Revenue fell nearly 12 percent to $169 million, with software revenue rising 1 percent to $111.4 million and consulting revenue falling 29 percent to $57.6 million. It beat analyst expectations for $161.9 million.

Operating expenses also declined, however, falling 14 percent to $77.7 million due mainly to a drop in sales and marketing expenses.

Also Wednesday, Lawson said that it will cut 75 positions, most of them from its consulting services in Europe, due partly to lower demand for consulting and implementation services there. The company expects to save about $7 million a year from the cuts.

Most of the cuts are expected to be finished by the end of the second quarter, and Lawson expects to report a $4 million charge for severance pay and related benefits in that period.