The quarter brought a drop in pre-tax earnings, which fell 23.4 percent to about $2.5 million. Revenue was roughly $42.2 million, an increase of 15 percent over last year's first quarter. The BMI deal appears to have altered what had been an important part of the Columbus growth plan, which was to rely increasingly on sales of its own software, instead of basing everything on what it terms external license sales, read Dynamics. Columbus license sales for the most recently ended period fell 2.2 percent to about $1.2 million, while external license revenue of $2.8 million was up 22.1 percent. BMI was also the force behind the increase in consulting revenue. That category hit $29.4 million in the most recently ended quarter, an increase of 15 percent from a year earlier. EBIDTA was up 85 percent with contributors there including cost-cutting in the troubled Norwegian operations and an improvement in chargeable hours in both Norway and in this country.
U.S. DRIVES COLUMBUS GROWTH Featured
The results for Danish reseller and ISV Columbus had a familiar theme with this week's release of results for its quarter ended March 31. Acquisitions, particularly in the United States, spurred its growth in consulting and overall revenues. "The growth is primarily due to acquisitions in 2015 and hosting [Danish firm Systemhosting] in 2016," CEO Thomas Honoré said during this week's earnings webcast. It seemed clear that the biggest component was results for Interdyn BMI, purchased last year, although Honoré pointed to improved sales execution at its other operation in this company, Columbus U.S., as another factor.
