Adobe Systems Inc.'s quarterly profit dropped 6.6% despite an increase in revenue as customers awaited an upgrade to its flagship Creative Suite software.For the fiscal third quarter ended Aug. 29, the maker of Acrobat and Photoshop software reported net income of $191.6 million, down from $205.2 million a year earlier. Earnings per share in the recent quarter were 35 cents, compared with 34 cents a year earlier, when there were more shares outstanding.
Revenue rose 4.2% to $887.3 million
In June, the San Jose, Calif., company said it expected sales of its Creative Suite products -- used by many newspaper and magazine publishing companies -- to drop slightly in the third quarter before the Sept. 23 release of the latest version, Creative Suite 4.
The company also makes Acrobat, used to create documents in the familiar PDF (portable document format) form, and Flash Player, which Adobe got through its acquisition of Macromedia Inc. in 2005.
More than half of the company's sales typically have come from outside the U.S., which benefited the company when the value of the U.S. dollar was falling.
Looking ahead, Adobe expects fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 51 cents to 53 cents a share on revenue of $925 million to $955 million.
By: Kathy Shwiff
Wall Street Journal; September 17, 2008
