Omniture's Loss Widens

SAN FRANCISCO - On-demand software provider OmnitureOMTR more than doubled first-quarter revenue Wednesday, but its bottom line suffered.

The Orem, Utah company grew revenue 136% to $69.6 million, including $6.4 million in write-offs from deferred revenue from several acquisitions, from $29.5 million in revenue for the same quarter of last year. Analysts were expecting revenue of $68.8 million, according to Thomson Financial.

Omniture's loss widened to $12.9 million, or 19 cents a share, from a loss of $2.4 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, EPS was 10 cents, a penny better than analysts' estimates.

Stock in the developer of business-optimization software was down 82 cents, or 3.6%, to $22 in after-hours trading.

Omniture forecast second-quarter revenue of $73 million to $75 million and EPS, excluding items, of 10 cents or 11 cents. Analysts were looking for a top line of $73.8 million and EPS of 10 cents.

The company projected full-year revenue of $308 million to $313 million, and EPS, less items, of 41 cents to 46 cents. The consensus estimate of analyst was for revenue of $305.8 million and EPS of 43 cents.

Omniture added 250 customers during the quarter, bringing its total to 4,500.

Unlike traditional software companies that receive large up-front payments on licensed software, on-demand companies receive subscription fees over time and generally move into the black only with a large volume of customers.

In business-optimization software that monitors and analyzes a company's Web site data, Omniture competes with private companies such as Coremetrics. But as an on-demand software supplier, the company is among a breed of newer companies supplying software as a service, including Salesforce.comCRM, NetSuiteN and TaleoTLEO.