Adobe ups outlook; Creative Suite chugs along

Adobe's second quarter results and third quarter outlook were better than expected.

After the market closed Monday, Adobe reported net income of $214.9 million, or 40 cents a share, on revenue of $886.9 million. Excluding charges and other items, Adobe's earnings were 50 cents a share, 4 cents ahead of Wall Street estimates.

For the third quarter (statement), Adobe projected non-GAAP earnings of 45 cents a share to 47 cents a share and 34 cents a share to 36 cents a share including charges. Revenue was projected to be $855 million to $885 million. According to Thomson First Call, Adobe was expected to earn 45 cents a share.

By the numbers (breakdown above, click to enlarge):

• Revenue for the second quarter was up 19 percent from a year ago. CEO Shantanu Narayen cited "product mix and geographic diversity" for the results.
• Creative solutions had sales of $527 million, or 59 percent of revenue, in the second quarter followed by business productivity software at $252.8 million, or 29 percent of revenue.

• Americas second quarter revenue was $383.8 million, or 43 percent of sales, followed by EMEA at $294.6 million, or 33 percent of sales. Asia revenue was $208.5 million, or 24 percent of sales.
• Operating income as a percentage of revenue was 29.3 percent, up from 24.2 percent a year ago, but down from 30.9 percent in the first quarter.
• Research and development spending was $170 million in the quarter, up from $150 million a year ago.
• The company had $1.86 billion in cash and short-term investments as of May 30.
• Adobe ended the quarter with 7,317 employees.

The big question is about CS4 and the revenue prospects. Adobe just started talking about CS Next.