By Heather McLean, 19 February 2002 11:17
NEWS Software and services firm Logica is this week expected to announce an increase in profits for the last six months despite sluggish revenues from its messaging software business. The company is likely to report a 17 per cent rise in profits for the six months ended 31 December, with profits before tax expected to reach £75.7m, compared to £64.8m in the same period last year. However, Logica has failed to make any deals regarding its instant messaging software despite the recent deal-making frenzy in the mobile market. Logica reduced its growth expectation on its mobile network division - which focuses on messaging software and brings in around one third of total revenues - from 40 per cent for the year down to 30 per cent in December. Since it admitted its instant messaging business was sinking, Logica's shares have fallen by 40 per cent. Logica's messaging software currently carries 60 per cent of the world's text messages. However, instant messaging and multimedia messaging software have generated a rush of deals in recent weeks as mobile operators look for the next generation SMS. AOL and Motorola announced they were teaming up on the mobile instant messaging front yesterday and Genie and BT Cellnet said the same last week.
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