SAS Achieves Record Revenues

SAS Achieves Record Revenues

Australia and New Zealand perform strongly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Auckland. February 21st 2007

Strong demand for industry-specific and packaged solutions in 2006 fueled the 30th straight year of revenue growth for SAS, the leader in business intelligence. Total revenue in 2006 was US$1.9 billion, up 12 per cent over US$1.7 billion in 2005.

Anthony Bishop, Country Manager SAS New Zealand noted that while global new software licence revenues increased 20 per cent – nearly double the growth rate expected in the market for 2007 – New Zealand and Australia’s equivalent growth exceeded 24 per cent. SAS new licence sales in other Asia Pacific markets were also impressively stronger.

Significant contracts signed in 2006 included those with – Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Housing New Zealand Corporation, Department of Health & Aging, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, NSW Health, Advertising Works Ogilvy, Statistics New Zealand, Telecom New Zealand, MBF, Queensland Department of Employment & Training, Vodafone Australia and Vodafone New Zealand.

“This year’s strong financial results validate the new course we set for the Company several years ago when we began investing heavily in business and industry-focused applications built on an enterprise intelligence platform,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “We had a good year. Industry and packaged business solutions were up 49 percent over 2005. One of our core strengths, powerful predictive analytics, continued to represent a significant stream of revenue at 19 percent growth. Sales of business intelligence and data integration/warehousing were each up by nearly 50 percent, demonstrating the importance of an integrated intelligence portfolio.”

OUTLOOK FOR 2007
“Based on the success of our packaged analytic applications and comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform, we expect to be a US$2 billion company in 2007,” Goodnight said. “Additionally, we have set the stage for increased sales by implementing our first-ever partner channel.”

Launched in 2006, a burgeoning reseller network will increase SAS’ routes to the market. “Combining market-leading technology and industry solutions with our strategic partners’ domain knowledge will continue to be top priority this year,” Goodnight said. ”Global system integrators and members of the SAS Alliance will accelerate our growth.”

Analyst firm Gartner recently positioned SAS in the Leaders Quadrant in its “Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 1Q07” report.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business intelligence software and services. Customers at 40,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight into vast amounts of data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products. Only SAS offers leading data integration, intelligence storage, advanced analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®. www.sas.com

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