Adobe fails to reach turnover target

Growth rate less than predicted

Adobe Systems has reported that its turnover was up 17 per cent in its first quarter, but that it was still far short of the growth rate the company had been hoping for.

Executives said they remained confident about the growing acceptance of the company's products in the enterprise market and expected turnover to grow 15 per cent in the current quarter.

However, the company declined to forecast beyond the current quarter because of uncertain economic conditions. Adobe reported turnover of $329m (£229.9m) for the first quarter, up 17 per cent on the same period last year.

The company had expected turnover to climb 25 per cent this quarter. However, sales did pick up during the latter part of the first quarter, said chief financial officer Murray Demo.

The e-Paper segment of the business, which includes Acrobat, grew 42 per cent to $61.8m from $43.4m, he pointed out. Bruce Chizen, chief executive, said: "A bigger piece of the business is around Acrobat. We're finding more business users."

Adobe will begin shipping Acrobat 5.0 this quarter. The software has been given broad support from companies in the content management, document security and professional services arenas. Documentum, Entrust Technologies and PricewaterhouseCoopers have backed Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and Adobe PDF as technologies for the enterprise customer.

The company reported profit of $69.8m, compared with $64.6m this time last year. Despite the uncertain outlook, Adobe is committed to maintaining an aggressive market strategy. "We will be more aggressive in our market strategy, especially during a slowdown," said Chizen.

Chief technology officer and co-founder John Warnock is to retire, but will stay on as chairman.