It’s going to be everyone against everyone, everywhere, in the low-end cloud business. There’s no indication Reckon would come to the United States, but it has a product here, the nQueue cost recovery package. So who knows? Meanwhile, there is opportunity for business trash talking. In an article dated August 14, Reckon CEO Clive Rabie took on Xero verbally in the National Business Review. “I think you're starting to see Xero plateau in places like New Zealand," he told NBR. Rabie also predicted Xero would run out of cash by September. I think somebody missed something. Rabie is quoted as saying Xero had $36 million (New Zealand dollars) two months ago. However, Xero's cash report of July 31 shows that on June 30 it had $192.7 million. Hmm. Meanwhile, net income for the half just ended reached about $8.8 million, up 7 percent from a year ago. Revenue hit roughly $47.5 million, a 3-percent hike from last year’s corresponding period. Subscription revenue was about $25.9 million, up 12 percent. The company noted it saved around $2.3 million on Intuit royalties, compared to the same period last year. It also acquired 14.8 million of Reckon shares that Intuit owned for somewhere in the range of $27 million.
RECKON ONE GOING TO THE U.K. Featured
Reckon, an Australia company that markets low-end accounting software, is developing a version of its cloud-based Reckon One for the United Kingdom. That was outlined in the company’s report of results for the first half ended June 30. “Investment in developing and establishing an infrastructure for a UK product has commenced,” the report said. It raises the specter of Reckon One, which competes with MYOB and Xero in its homeland, of going up against Xero and Sage One in the British Commonwealth motherland. Meanwhile, Intuit, whose products were formerly distributed down under by Reckon, will be entering Australia next year and Sage is expected to join the fight in the Outback Corral.
