Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Dave Hafner – JP Morgan.
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Dave Hafner – JP Morgan
I guess the top line, guys was better than expected. This quarter which is obviously good especially in the environment, however license did decline of 15% year-over-year which was better than the 24% in the previous period, but some of the double-digit pace. I guess guidance for the next quarter implies some improvement, but again it looks like another double-digit decline.
The question is, should we expect to see this sort of gradual improvement going forward or will there likely be a sharper change when comps get easier in the March period?
David Henshall
This is David. Let me take the first crack at that, and then I ask Mark to add on as well. Similar to what we’ve talked about in prior periods we were looking at the first quarter of the year to really be a bottom of sorts, as we looked at it on a year-over-year growth rate basis and that’s just about really a statement of the way customers were looking at their own budgets, looking to put projects in place and also reflection of our pipeline, which has remained strong and growing throughout this whole economic cycle.
In the second quarter we did see, as I mentioned in my remarks, really good performance out of a couple of GOs, most specifically the U.S. which is typically the first to enter a cycle and the first to exit a cycle, and really happy with the execution and the activity based metrics we are seeing there.
We are still cautious obviously on EMEA. A lot of the data points that you see in the press from a macroeconomic standpoint point, point to an improvement that’s probably pushed out in the future a little bit. I think it’s our caution is what you are hearing a little bit there.
So, as far as guidance is concerned, we do think that Q3 will be sequentially better, albeit on a modest basis and still be down low double-digits on a year-over-year basis, and then further improvement into the fourth quarter as well. So, nothing specific in our guidance beyond just current expectations for the cycle expecting the U.S. and the APAC to continue to be stable and show improvement and just being a little bit more cautious on the EMEA outlook.
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