Citrix Systems: Virtualization is still elusive

Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS), a top enterprise software player, is striving to supercharged growth with the marvels of virtualization (a technology that gets more firepower from existing resources). Yet, with the slowing economy, things are proving kind of difficult.

This week Citrix announced its Q1 results. Revenues increased 22% to $377 million and net income came to $34.4 million, up 8.5%. Yes, when trying to conquer new technology frontiers, there's a need to ramp expenses (especially for marketing and R&D).

Citrix has an expanding global footprint, which has muted the downturn in the US. Also, the company has a nice assortment of products, such as its GoToMeeting franchise (which is one of the top on-demand offerings in the marketplace).

Still, Citrix is betting heavily on its virtualization technology, which is part of last year's acquisition of XenSource. Indeed, traction, such as with distribution deals with Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) is evident. Citrix was also able to expand its alliance with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

But there is still much to prove to the Street. After all, the marquee virtualization player, VMWare (NYSE: VMW), had a particularly strong Q1.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.