SAP, the world's biggest maker of business-management software, today raised its margin forecast for this year, helped by job cuts, and slashed its target for software and related service revenue.
The target for full-year non-GAAP operating margin was raised to between 25.5 per cent and 27 per cent, SAP said in a statement. It earlier forecast a margin of 24.5 per cent to 25.5 per cent.
SAP now forecasts non-GAAP software and software-related service revenue will fall 4 per cent to 6 per cent, versus a previous goal of it being flat to 1 per cent lower.
SAP is cutting 3,000 jobs this year, the first redundancies since it was founded in 1972, because of the economic slump.
Chief executive officer Leo Apotheker has also said German-based SAP may spend as much as €5 billion euros on acquisitions to win market share from competitors such as Oracle.
"While the operating environment remains difficult, we are beginning to have improved visibility into the second half of the year," Mr Apotheker said in the statement.
"For the remainder of the year, we expect to maintain tight cost controls in all areas of the company," he added.
Total second-quarter sales fell 10 per cent to €2.58 billion from €2.86 billion a year earlier, SAP said. Revenue from software and related service revenue decreased 5 per cent to €1.95 billion from €2.06 billion euros.
Net income rose to €423 million in the quarter from €408 milliona year earlier.
SAP, whose software is used by companies to manage tasks such as payroll, last week offered to buy Swiss software company SAF for €63.7 million to add systems for managing inventory.
Agencies