- Record total bookings of $125.4 million in fiscal year 2011, up 13% year-over-year
- Record deferred revenue of $45.8 million at the end of fiscal year 2011, up 24% year-over-year
- Annual contract value of new SaaS bookings grew 276% in the fourth quarter of 2011 and grew 210% in fiscal year 2011 over the respective year ago periods
- SaaS revenue grew 59% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011 and 33% in fiscal year 2011 over the respective year ago periods
- Added 153 new enterprise customers in fiscal year 2011; 40 in the fourth quarter
Redwood Shores, Calif., July 20, 2011 – Saba (NASDAQ: SABA), the premier People Cloud provider, today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended May 31, 2011.
“We grew our SaaS bookings 276% and SaaS revenue 59% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011. We now have one of the fastest growing SaaS businesses among public companies,” said Bobby Yazdani, Chairman and CEO of Saba. “We signed four of the five largest transactions in our history during the fiscal year, with all four customers selecting Saba People Cloud Applications. The transformation of our business to SaaS from license is well ahead of plan. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Saba team for all their hard work and dedication, and congratulate them on their success in enabling Saba to become a world-class SaaS company.”
SaaS revenue steadily increased during fiscal year 2011, growing 8% in the first quarter, 19% in the second quarter, 42% in the third quarter, and 59% in the fourth quarter over the respective year-ago periods. Nine of our 12 largest deals in the fourth quarter were for SaaS offerings. The number of new SaaS transactions over $50,000 increased almost three-fold in fiscal year 2011 over fiscal year 2010.
Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011
Revenues: Total GAAP revenues were $29.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, up 1% from $29.6 million in the same quarter last year. Total Non-GAAP revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011 were $30.0 million, up 1%, compared to $29.6 million in the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP revenues reflect the exclusion of the fair value adjustments to deferred revenue due to acquisitions.
For fiscal year 2011, total GAAP revenues increased to $116.7 million from $109.6 million in the year ago period. Total Non-GAAP revenues for fiscal year 2011 increased 7% to $116.7 million from $109.6 million in the year ago period.
Deferred Revenue: Total Deferred revenue increased to a record $45.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, growing 24% year-over-year and 8% sequentially.
Fourth Quarter Investments: During the fourth quarter, we accelerated our investments in a number of key areas by approximately $2.0 million or $0.07 per share to support our fiscal year 2012 growth initiatives. Areas of investment included:
- Sales Force Expansion -- added country managers in Canada, India, and China and continued expansion of sales capacity and management in existing and new markets
- International Expansion -- launched our operations in China and grew our operations in Latin America and Asia Pacific
- Cloud Operations -- invested in our global cloud operations in preparation for the major release of our new People Cloud Applications which is planned for this Fall and invested in a number of new technological innovations that are planned to be released throughout fiscal year 2012. We also added key executives to run our Cloud business including Shawn Farshchi as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Daniel Lipkin, Vice President of Technology
- Acquisitions -- closed our acquisition of two leading testing and assessment software companies
Earnings (Loss) per Share: GAAP loss per share was $0.17 in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011 compared to fully diluted earnings per share of $0.03 in the same period last year. Non-GAAP loss per share was $0.10 in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011 compared to non-GAAP fully diluted earnings per share of $0.08 in the fourth quarter of last year.
For fiscal year 2011, GAAP loss per share was $0.26 compared to fully diluted earnings per share of $0.09 in fiscal year 2010. Non-GAAP loss per share was $0.02 in fiscal year 2011 compared to non-GAAP fully diluted earnings per share of $0.29 in fiscal year 2010.
Our non-GAAP results are calculated by adjusting GAAP results for the impact of certain items including (i) non-cash amortization of intangibles, (ii) non-cash charges related to share-based compensation expenses, (iii) non-operating reorganization costs, (iv) fair value adjustments to deferred revenue due to acquisitions and (v) other acquisition related costs for legal and accounting services. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in the financial statements accompanying this press release.
Cash: Cash flow from operations was $4.0 million in fiscal year 2011, and cash and cash equivalents at May 31, 2011 were $25.9 million.
Share Repurchase: The Company repurchased 243,648 shares of common stock during the quarter for $2.3 million, bringing the total number of shares repurchased under its share repurchase program to 777,291 shares for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $5.5 million. The Company now has approximately $4.5 million remaining under the repurchase program.
Customers: We added 40 new enterprise customers in the quarter including Fiat/Chrysler, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Fitch Ratings, and Kumon Institute of Education.
In addition, we expanded our footprint with a number of our existing customers in the quarter including W.W. Grainger, Five Guys, Union Bank, Bio-Rad, Novartis, France Telecom, and Kronos.
Partners: We added 14 partners in the fourth quarter including Aon/Hewitt, Satyam, and British Telecom. We have signed 36 new partners in fiscal year 2011 bringing our total number of partners to 107. Our partners once again contributed over 50% of our new business in the quarter.
Acquisitions: We acquired Pedagogue Solutions and Comartis, two leading software companies in the testing and assessment market. These companies provide the foundation of our new Testing and Assessment offerings. “The ability to test and assess skill levels and learning effectiveness is an essential element of any learning management system,” said Bobby Yazdani, Chairman and CEO of Saba. “Organizations need to understand how effectively their people are trained and whether the imparted knowledge and developed skills are being successfully applied. In addition, our new testing and assessment offerings broaden our market opportunities beyond the traditional talent management space.”
Business Outlook
The following statements are based on current expectations as of the date of this release. These statements are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially. Saba does not undertake any obligations to update these forward-looking statements.
For fiscal year 2012, ending May 31, 2012, we are forecasting total GAAP revenues in the range of $130 million to $133 million.
We are forecasting total bookings to grow approximately 16% to 18% in fiscal year 2012 over fiscal year 2011 with SaaS bookings growth in excess of 110% in fiscal year 2012 over fiscal year 2011.
We expect our operating income in fiscal year 2012 to be impacted by our recent success in selling multi-hundred thousand subscribers on the Cloud. As part of the adoption of Financial Accounting Standards Board standard for multiple-element revenue arrangements, ASU 2009-13, for certain transactions, we are required to recognize a portion of the respective professional services revenue ratably over the life of the contract while incurring the professional services expense upfront. We estimate this to negatively impact our earnings per share by $0.06 to $0.08 in fiscal year 2012.
As such, we are forecasting GAAP net loss to range from $0.39 to $0.45 per share and non-GAAP net loss to range from $0.17 to $0.23 per share.
Fiscal year 2012 non-GAAP outlook excludes non-cash amortization of intangibles, charges related to stock-based compensation expenses and the impact to revenue for fair value adjustments to deferred revenue due to acquisitions.
Accounting Changes
As previously disclosed, beginning with the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, Saba adopted Financial Accounting Standards Board standard for multiple-element revenue arrangements, ASU 2009-13 for applicable arrangements entered into or materially modified beginning June 1, 2010 (the beginning of the Company’s fiscal year). ASU 2009-13 allows for separate revenue recognition for professional services, with stand-alone value, performed for cloud customers. Professional services revenue for cloud contracts are now recognized as delivered, providing all other revenue recognition criteria are met, rather than being recognized over the life of the cloud contract, as in periods prior to June 1, 2010.
Saba also changed its accounting policy for sales commissions related to cloud transactions from expensing as incurred to capitalizing commissions and expensing them ratably over the life of the contract. This change in commission accounting more closely aligns the expense recognition for cloud transactions with the time period in which revenue is recognized and conforms to prevailing industry practice.
Please refer to the attached tables for the impact of these changes on current and prior period results. You can also visit our website at investor.saba.com to view the updated balance sheet and income statement for fiscal year 2010 and the first three quarters of fiscal year 2011.
Call
Saba will host a teleconference call and live webcast on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 commencing at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss its financial results. To join the call, please dial +1.800.553.0326 or +1.612.332.0632. The access code for the conference call is 207272. To listen to the live webcast, please go to the Investor Relations page of the Saba web site at investor.saba.com and click on the Live Webcast icon.
A replay of the conference call will be available shortly after its conclusion. The replay dial-in number is +1.800.475.6701 or +1.320.365.3844. The access code for the conference call replay is 207272. The replay can also be accessed from the Investor Relations page of the Saba web site at investor.saba.com and will be available through August 20, 2011.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, without limitation: statements regarding Saba’s business outlook, including expected total revenues, anticipated GAAP and non-GAAP net loss per share, projected total bookings and SaaS bookings growth and the expected per share impact associated with incurring certain professional services expenses in advance of associated professional services revenue, Saba’s ability to timely make generally available, if at all, the Fall release of Saba People Cloud Applications and other technical innovations throughout fiscal year 2012, Saba’s expectations regarding the growth in its SaaS business and continued customer adoption of its SaaS offerings and the expected benefits to Saba of its recent acquisitions of two testing and assessment businesses. Saba's actual results could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties Saba faces that could cause results to differ materially include risks associated with: dependence on growth of the markets for Saba's products, fluctuations in Saba’s quarterly results, variability in the mix of Saba’s license, subscription and professional services revenues and bookings, dependence on acceptance of Saba's products by customers and channel partners, the success of Saba’s alliances and partnerships, fluctuation in customer spending, any changes in the length of Saba's sales cycle, new product offerings or pricing changes introduced by our competitors, technological changes that could make our products less attractive to customers or require new product development investments, dependence on new product introductions and enhancements in order to meet the changing needs of our customers and markets, and potential software defects. Readers should also refer to the section entitled "Risk Factors” in the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010, and similar disclosures in subsequent reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements and risks stated in this press release are based on information available to Saba today. Saba assumes no obligation to update them.
Non-GAAP Financial Information
Saba has provided its non-GAAP net income and net income per share data in this press release as additional information for investors. This measure is not in accordance with, or an alternative to, generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), and is intended to supplement GAAP financial information, and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. Other non-GAAP measures provided by the Company in this press release include bookings, defined as total revenues plus the change in total deferred revenue, and annual contract value, defined as the amount of a transaction generally recognized within a twelve month period.
Saba believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to investors regarding its results of operations. Saba believes it also provides an alternative method of assessing Saba’s operating results that Saba believes is focused on its core on-going operations and may allow investors to perform additional meaningful period-to-period comparisons of its operating results. In addition, Saba’s management team uses these measures for reviewing its financial results, and for budget and planning purposes
About Saba
Saba (NASDAQ: SABA) enables organizations to build a transformative workplace that leverages the advent of social networking in business and the ubiquity of mobile to empower an organization’s most mission-critical assets – its people. The company provides a set of people-centric enterprise solutions to various businesses and industries worldwide. Saba delivers cloud-based learning management, talent management, and social enterprise solutions to transform the way people work.
Saba's premier customer base includes major global organizations and industry leaders in financial services, life sciences and healthcare, high tech, automotive and manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, packaged goods, and public sector organizations. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Saba has offices on five continents. For more information, please visit www.saba.com or call +1-877-SABA-101 or +1-650-779-2791. SABA, the Saba logo, and the marks relating to Saba products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Saba Software, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Saba
Aly Kline, 650-581-2593
PR Associate
akline@saba.com
Source: Saba
