This summary is based on the fourth quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by BMC Software, Inc. (BMC: chart) on May 15, 2008.

Management:

Investor Relations: Derrick Vializ
President, Chief Executive Officer, Director: Robert E. Beauchamp
Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President: Stephen B. Solcher

Key Investors Issues

- EPS were 50 cents per share compared to 30 cents a share last year.
- Net income was $97 million compared to earnings of $62.8 million for the same period last year.
- Revenue grew 11% to $466.9 million.

Fourth Quarter Highlights

Total revenue was $467 million, an 11% increase compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007.

- This was above the high-end of guidance for the quarter and the second quarter in a row with double-digit total revenue growth.
- License revenue was $189 million, an increase of 14% compared to a year ago. The percentage of license bookings that were deferred was 48%, in line with the third quarter and eight percentage points lower than in the year-ago period when the ratable rate for license bookings was at a historical high.
- Maintenance revenue was $245 million, an increase of 7% compared to a year ago.
- Professional services revenue increased 37% to $33 million.

- Non-GAAP operating margin was 29%, 8 percentage points over the prior year.
- Non-GAAP operating income increased by 53% from $90 million to $137 million.

Non-GAAP net earnings were $123 million, an increase of 47% over fiscal 2007.

Non-GAAP EPS for the period was 63 cents per share, up 58% compared to the year ago period. This reflects a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 21%, which included a favorable impact associated with guidance issued by a taxing authority in the fourth quarter related to certain deductions that the company is entitled to.

GAAP operating income was $98 million, compared with $55 million in the year-ago period.

- GAAP net income and fully EPS were $97 million and 50 cents per share, compared to $63 million and 30 cents per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 respectively.
- Total bookings were $552 million, representing a decline of 2% compared to the year-ago period. Despite a tough comparison to the prior year, annualized bookings increased 19%.

Total ESM bookings, which include professional services, were $327 million, up 8%.

- Total ESM license bookings were $115 million, up 1% over the year-ago period.

- Within ESM business unit, growth of core BSM license bookings is a key indicator of the success of Business Service Management strategy. Core BSM license bookings were up 16%.
Total MSM bookings on a trailing 12-month basis increased 2% to $731 million with an average contract length of 2.9 years. In the year-ago period, total MSM bookings were $718 million with an average contract length of 3.2 years. After normalizing for contract length, total annualized MSM bookings for the trailing 12-months were up 13% to $253 million.

Non-GAAP operating expenses were $330 million, flat with the year-ago period.

Operating expenses included increased costs from acquisitions and the negative impact of currency movements.

- Total deferred license revenue at the end of the fourth quarter was $555 million, up 3% sequentially and 10% year-over-year. The company deferred $97 million of license revenue, or 48% of license bookings, and recognized $83 million of deferred license revenue from the balance sheet.
- Total deferred revenue increased by $85 million sequentially to $1.78 billion.
- Capitalized software development costs were $113 million, flat with the third quarter of 2008 as the company capitalized $14 million and amortized $15 million.

- Cash and marketable securities at March 31st totaled $1.48 billion, an increase of $110 million sequentially.
- Cash flow from operations was $210 million.
- The company repurchased 3.3 million shares for an aggregate value of $110 million.