14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe has revealed its revenue numbers for the third fiscal quarter of 2010 and the picture is looking rosier than ever. Adobe reported its biggest quarter to date with revenue growing 42 year-over-year.
Income saw a similar increase. It must be noted that 2009 was a particularly poor year for Adobe, so the figures may not be that impressive overall.
"In the third quarter of fiscal 2010, Adobe achieved record revenue of $990.3 million, compared to $697.5 million reported for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 and $943.0 million reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2010," the company said in a statement.
"This represents 42 percent year-over-year revenue growth. Adobe’s third quarter revenue target range was $950 million to $1 billion," it added.
“Strong performance in each of our major businesses contributed to record revenue and strong earnings in Q3,” Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe, said.
“We remain bullish about Adobe's long-term role in enabling the transformation of content and applications across industries,” he added.
Adobe generates much of its revenue from its graphical editing software, the Creative Suite. The release of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 earlier this year was met with mostly positive reviews.
Combined with the recovering economy, sales of the Adobe CS5 were much stronger than those of the product it replaced. Sales are 15 percent higher at the moment than CS4 sales were at the same point after release.
However, Adobe was a bit less optimistic about the fourth quarter than the analysts predicted. While observers forecast revenue in the $1.03 billion range for the fourth fiscal quarter, Adobe estimates revenue to be between $950 million to $1 billion in Q4, just like in the ending quarter.
Adobe says that lower than expected "back-to-school" sales and sluggish sales in Japan, typically its biggest market, contributed to this. Adobe shares dropped after the announcement, despite the strong third quarter.