Irvine’s Sage Software Inc., a maker of business software, saw sales slip for the six months through March, capping two years of declines.
Sage, the North American unit of Britain’s Sage Group PLC, makes software that does accounting, tracks customers, payroll and other back-office functions.
Rivals include Intuit Inc. and big players such as Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, which focus on larger companies but also go after smaller businesses.
Sage said on Wednesday its North American sales for the six months through March were $429 million, down 6% from a year earlier. The North America business unit didn’t report profits.
Sage’s British parent saw sales of $1.14 billion, down 3% from the same period a year earlier.
It reported earnings before interest, taxes and amortization of $289 million.
Sage added some 127,000 customers worldwide and 48,000 customer in North America, the company said.
Sage has been hit hard during the downturn as many of its small business customers opt to hold on to their cash and defer payments and purchasing decisions.
Chief Executive Sue Swenson, who came on board in 2007, has cut hundreds of jobs across Sage’s disparate business units. She’s also hired a handful of executives in Irvine, where there’s some 400 workers.
The company focused on tightening up its operations and consolidating redundant positions after nearly a dozen acquisitions and ramping up its sales efforts.
In 2008, Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., the top maker of online video games, surpassed Sage as Orange County’s biggest software company by sales.
