SAP Reports 14 Percent Sales Growth In Q3

"SAP's third-quarter software revenue grew at its fastest rate in a decade because customers are shifting their investments to software that helps them grow and innovate," said co-CEO Bill McDermott, in a statement. "This is a growth company executing on a powerful vision," he said, pointing to strong sales of the company's core application products, as well as mobility, in-memory computing and cloud computing software.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Walldorf, Germany-based SAP reported total revenue of 3.41 billion Euros ($4.75 billion), up 14 percent from 3.00 billion Euros ($4.18 billion) in the third quarter of 2010. The revenue figure included 841 million Euros ($1.17 billion) in software sales for the quarter, up 28 percent from one year earlier, and 1.76 billion Euros ($2.45 billion) in support revenue.

Net profit for the third quarter was 1.25 billion Euros ($1.74 billion), up 150 percent from the 501 million Euros ($698 million) in last year's third quarter.

SAP has rebounded strongly since 2009 when the company, hard hit by the recession, saw sales plunge 8 percent and profits fall 4 percent. Then-CEO Leo Apotheker was ousted from his post in February 2010 because of the company's poor performance in 2009.

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SAP's operating margin also benefited from a Sept. 1 U.S. District Court ruling that reduced to $272 million the $1.3 billion in damages a jury assessed against SAP in its ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit with Oracle. That reduced SAP's third-quarter operating expenses by 723 million Euros ($1.01 billion), according to the company.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, SAP reported total revenue of 9.73 billion Euros ($13.56 billion), up 16 percent from 8.41 billion Euros ($11.71 billion) in the third quarter of 2010. The revenue figure included 2.23 billion Euros ($3.10 billion) in software sales for the quarter, up 27 percent from one year earlier, and 5.09 billion Euros ($7.09 billion) in support revenue.

Net profit for the first nine months of 2011 was 2.24 billion Euros ($3.12 billion), up 63 percent from the 1.38 billion Euros ($1.92 billion) in last year's third quarter.