Carl Bass
Analyst · ThinkEquity
Thank you and good afternoon. Our first quarter results reflect a solid start to fiscal 2012. There are several areas of notable growth and achievement. Highlights for the quarter include: 11% growth in total revenue; 23% growth in revenue from commercial new licenses; 38% growth in non-GAAP EPS; strong operating margin growth; record deferred revenue; and the launch of our 2012 product line, including our new Design and Creation Suites. Asia Pacific again led the growth for the quarter from a geographic perspective, and we also experienced strong growth in the Americas. Our EMEA region posted solid growth despite a difficult compare as it benefited the most from last year's promotion. Our Manufacturing business delivered another solid quarter, with growth in all geographies and particular strength in the Americas and APAC. Within our Manufacturing segment, revenue from commercial new licenses grew a strong 32% compared to the first quarter last year. We experienced strong growth in our data management business through broader penetration across industries and geographies. Enterprise and SMB customers are choosing our data management solution for its state-of-the-art technology, cost effectiveness and ease of use. Over the past 3 years, we've been building our portfolio of broad-based simulation technologies and will continue to democratize these technologies by bringing robust tools to design engineers. For example, during the quarter, we acquired Blue Ridge, a leading provider of simulation software specializing in computational fluid dynamics to add to our Simulation portfolio. Our AEC [Architecture, Engineering and Construction] business grew 3% during the quarter. We experienced softness in our infrastructure business -- excuse me, our AEC business grew 3% during the quarter. We experienced softness in our infrastructure business in Q1 but we are looking forward to the introduction of our new infrastructure Design Suites, which we'll launch in Q2. The market demand and acceptance for products based on building information modeling technology is accelerating. While we are disappointed by the tepid growth, when you consider that the majority of our PSEB [Platform Solutions and Emerging Business] revenue is sold into the AEC industry, our total sales to AEC customers are better than it may appear. Our strongest growth in the quarter was generated by our PSEB and Media and Entertainment business segments. Growth was driven by customer demand for our horizontal design and animation products, respectively. We also closed the acquisition of Scaleform, which adds strong UI [user interface] tools and middleware to our Media and Entertainment group's robust portfolio of tools for game development. The most significant event for us in Q1 was the launch of several new Design and Creation Suites. While we did not ship these suites until very late in the quarter, our customers and partners are very excited about the suites. As you might imagine, the subject of suites was a major portion of the sales kickoff meeting we held during the quarter. We've been doing a lot of education and training with our sales people and channel partners. And today, we've had over 1,200 employees and nearly 4,900 channel partner employees trained on the new suites. There are a number of other positives in our Q1 results. We continue to see our subscription attach and renewal rates rise, and are now at levels at or above prerecession levels. And our balance sheet remains strong, with deferred revenue experiencing solid double-digit growth. Channel inventory remains at historically low levels and our cash balance is over $1.5 billion. I also want to take a moment to say that we're very thankful that none of our employees or partners was physically harmed in the earthquake or tsunami in Japan. They have shown incredible courage and resilience in the face of this tragedy. It's clear from the extent of the devastation that it will take some time before the economic situation in Japan returns to normal. We did experience some softness in Japan in the first quarter. Looking ahead, we have factored this into our guidance. Beyond that, we are looking forward to our tools helping the companies and people of Japan in their rebuilding process. Overall, we're pleased with the solid start to fiscal 2012. The better-than-expected start, coupled with a more positive outlook for the rest of the year, has allowed us to raise our expectations of our revenue and margins for the full year. It's clear that we are participating in the general market recovery. And it's also clear the rate of recovery differs by geography and by industry. We're very confident about our market position and strategy and more excited than ever about the opportunities before us. We will continue to focus on executing our strategy and driving growth in revenue, margins and profitability. Operator, we would now like to open the call up for questions.