Lawson continues to battle the software titans

For the most part, the dominant players in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software space include Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), SAP (NYSE: SAP), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

But, there are a variety of mid-size players trying to compete. One is Lawson (NASDAQ: LWSN).

And this week, the company reported its latest quarterly report. Revenues increased 9.4% to $233 million but net income dropped 55% to $3.7 million, or $0.02 per share. Why? Well, Lawson took a charge for its exposure to auction-rate securities.

The quarter saw $51 million in signed software contracts, up from $42 million in the same period a year ago (there were four deals in excess of $1 million). For the most part, Lawson is getting traction from investments in its technology platform -- as well as its salesforce.

For the year, Lawson forecasts revenues of $920 million to $925 million. EPS (earnings per share) is expected to range from $0.43 to $0.47.

However, Wall Street is still concerned about the competition and macro environment. As a result, the shares of Lawson have been languishing this year, dropping from $9.94 to $7.14.

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.