NetSuite's Q3 better than expected

NetSuite's third quarter was better than expectations as the company's two-tier ERP model continues to deliver.

The company, which acquired TribeHR, an HCM company on Wednesday, reported a third quarter net loss of $16.8 million, or 23 cents a share, on revenue of $106.9 million, up 34 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 9 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for third quarter non-GAAP earnings of 8 cents a share on revenue of $105.7 million.

In a statement, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson took his usual shots at SAP, which scaled back its Business ByDesign cloud ERP suite.

For the third quarter, Netsuite's subscription and support revenue was $85.8 million with services coming in at $21.08 million.

NetSuite projected fourth quarter revenue between $110.5 million and $111.5 million with non-GAAP earnings of 7 cents per share. Wall Street was looking for non-GAAP earnings of 10 cents a share on revenue of $110.9 million. NetSuite said the fourth quarter will have earnings dilution from the TribeHR acquisition. 

On a conference call, Nelson gave a long history of SAP's Business ByDesign and danced on its grave a bit---even though the NetSuite chief said he wasn't. Nelson's point went like this:

I am not telling the story to dance on grave of SAP's failure. (But it) tells you all you need to know about how hard it is to duplicate our offerings. If anyone has the experience to build a product and complete with the NetSuite, you would think it would be SAP. and while we may have made it look easy, it is anything but.