The company lost money, but it significantly improved its performance over 2008. A year ago it reported losing $65 million. For 2009, it cut the loss to $12.6 million, while increasing its revenue by 36.8 percent.
No surprise, then, that Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors’ founder and CEO, says, “In the worst economic year, SuccessFactors had our best year.”
The numbers, however, failed to impress Wall Street when they were released last week. Shares of SuccessFactors dropped immediately after the financials were released, in large measure on the basis of the company’s prediction that it would be at break-even in 2010. Analysts were expecting a profit of 11 cents a share, after excluding special and one-time expenses.
The company also announced it would buy Inform, a workforce planning technology provider, for $40.5 million in cash and stock.
Since the Feb. 4th release, company shares have recovered nicely and today closed at $16.25, down somewhat from the $16.49 of Feb. 3.