VMware turned in solid fourth quarter and full year results, growing in spite of the recession as server and desktop consolidation cost-saving projects remain popular with customers.

The company reported fourth quarter calendar 2008 (Q4 08) revenues of $515m, up 25 per cent on Q4 07, and GAAP net income of $111m ($0.29/share) versus $78m and $0.19/share in Q4 07. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Full year 2008 revenues were $1.9bn (2007: $1.33bn) with net income of $290m (07: $218m), meaning $0.73/share (07: $0.61/share).

US revenues grew 37 per cent in 2008 while international revenues grew faster at 48 per cent. Licence revenues grew 30 percent while service revenues increased at the faster clip of 67 per cent.

CEO Paul Maritz was content. "VMware delivered a solid fourth quarter to cap off a successful 2008," he said. "We have been executing well in a difficult economy."

He gave an outlook for the next quarter, but not for the full 2009 year, predicting revenues of $475m; lower than Wall Street estimates, but still growth compared to Q1 08's $438m revenues. The full year outlook is uncertain as many of VMware's customers have not yet decided on their 2009 IT budgets due to the highly uncertain economic situation. They don't know how deep the recession is going to be, nor how long.

The recession of course is due to bankers and financial institutions having lived in a virtual financial world which is costing trillions of dollars as it falls to earth - unlike in IT where virtualisation saves dollars, a fact that is benefitting VMware at the same time as it hurts parent EMC. ®