"In terms of total revenues and operating profit, we rang up our strongest fiscal first quarter in five years," said Alfred Chuang, chairman and chief executive officer, as BEA yesterday reported first quarter non-GAAP net income of $35.8 million, up 7% from $33.4 million a year ago, and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.09, compared to $0.08 a year ago.

"The BEA team did a terrific job," Chuang continued.

"We delivered balanced, consistent results worldwide, and the Americas had one of their best quarters in three years. We signed more million-dollar license agreements, at a higher average size, than we have ever had in a first quarter," he added.

For the first quarter ended April 30, 2005, BEA reported total revenues of $281.7 million, up 7% from $262.6 million in last year's first quarter and BEA's highest ever in a first quarter. For the first quarter, BEA reported license revenues of $116.1 million, as compared to $120.2 million a year ago, and services revenue of $165.7 million, compared to $142.5 million a year ago. For the first quarter, on a generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") basis, BEA reported operating income of $48.5 million, up 24% from $39.1 million a year ago and BEA's highest ever in a first quarter. BEA reported GAAP first quarter net income of $34.1 million, up 35% from $25.3 million a year ago, and GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.08, up from $0.06 a year ago. BEA generated first quarter cash flow from operations of $76.9 million, compared to $82.1 million a year ago.

"Our first quarter performance was driven by strong customer demand, great products, improved sales execution, and continued strength in our customer support business," Chuang continued. "Our customers are making investments in systems that help them get more value out of their current IT assets. Customers are building robust portals, based on the principles of Service- Oriented Architecture. BEA continued to capture design wins as the architecture of choice for customers' SOA projects, demonstrating that customers continue to look to BEA for industrial-strength infrastructure products across a broad spectrum of industries and business needs."

"We are encouraged by the early progress of our WebLogic Communications Platform. We already have several customers. The first WebLogic SIP Server customer, a tier-one telecommunications carrier, went live during Q1, and has now migrated about 25% of their existing VOIP service to WebLogic. Our sales and technical teams continue to advance on the early stages of the sales cycle, focusing on the top 40 telcos and network equipment providers around the world. We are already beginning pilot projects at several customers, and we are aggressively hiring to expand our capabilities in this exciting growth market," he added.