By Simon Quicke
23 July 2008
Despite the credit crunch and the gloomy headlines the software sector appears to have kept the wolves at bay.
According to the latest survey of profit warnings from Ernst & Young the numbers had decreased in both the software and computer services sectors compared to the first quarter of this year.
A total of nine warnings were issued by seven companies in the second quarter declining from 13 in the first three months.
James Bennett, technology director at Ernst & Young, warned that things would remain difficult throughout this year: “this should not take away the challenging market conditions that technology firms are facing at the moment; some of the most difficult in the last five years. With the overall downturn in the market place, it is likely that there will continue to be difficult times for technology companies”
That view echoed expectations that there will be some warnings in the second half of the year as major projects get cut back.
So far there have been hints that there is widespread caution about the second half of the year in recent results from Intel, IBM and Google.
