SAP delivers solid Q4, HANA, cloud revenue touted

SAP said its HANA analytics platform is ramping with fourth quarter revenue approaching €200 million in software sales.

For 2012, HANA had revenue of nearly €400 million. SAP has been working its cloud revenue, via the acquisitions of SuccessFactors and Ariba, as well as mobile, powered by Sybase.

Overall, SAP reported fourth quarter earnings of €1.1 billion on revenue of €5 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. Cloud revenue was €126 million in the fourth quarter and software revenue was €1.94 billion, up 9 percent from a year ago.

By region, SAP saw software and cloud subscription revenue in the Americas surge 24 percent in the fourth quarter with 12 percent growth in EMEA and 20 percent in Asia Pacific.

Here's the overview:

One thing to note in SAP results is operating margins, which fell to 31.7 percent in the fourth quarter down from 37.1 percent a year ago. SAP has bulked up with 64,422 employees in the fourth quarter, up 16 percent from 55,765 a year ago.

SAP added that its operating profits took a hit due to investments in the cloud business and "go-to-market activities." In other words, SAP hired a lot of salespeople.

SAP's statement focused on growth markets. The company said its cloud annual revenue run rate is about €850 million. On a conference call, co-CEO Bill McDermott also talked cloud and growth markets.

However, SAP's bottom line is powered by its on-premise products and services.

As for the outlook for 2013, SAP said that it expects to continue to grow revenue at a double-digit clip and "further improve" profitability. Specifically, SAP gave the following guidance:

Software and cloud subscription revenue to grow at a 14 percent to 20 percent clip excluding charges and other items. That growth clip equates to about €750 million annually.

Software and software-related service revenue will grow 11 percent to 13 percent excluding items.

Operating profit will be €5.85 billion to €5.95 billion on a non-IFRS basis. Non-IFRS is the international version of non-GAAP results in the U.S.

For 2012, SAP reported earnings of €2.83 billion on revenue of €16.22 billion, up 14 percent from a year ago. SAP's earnings were down 18 percent from 2011.

More:

• SAP Q4 sales up by 12 percent; Asia carried quarter
• SAP and HANA: 5 Points of advice for CIOs
• SAP on HANA: where SAP wins and how it has missed the real goal
• SAP prioritizes real-time apps with Business Suite running on HANA