TIBCO Is a Must-Have

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Vivek Ranadive, the chairman and CEO of TIBCO Software (NYSE: TIBX), was prepared to answer the big question in software: Is this an industry that has matured?

Well, from Ranadive's perspective, he thinks Wall Street analysts are misreading the sector. While he believes the major applications players such as Siebel (Nasdaq: SEBL) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) are maturing, there is certainly a tremendous amount of growth for software companies.

No doubt, Ranadive considers his segment of the software industry -- integration of enterprise technologies -- to be in the midst of a fundamental growth phase. And, other than some competition from IBM (NYSE: IBM), he deems his company to be the winner.

Is this an example of a crazy CEO? Not judging by the company's third-quarter results. The company posted revenues of $105.9 million, which was a 60% increase from the same period a year ago. Net income was $8.6 million, which was up from $2.7 million in the same period last year.

The company snagged many sales wins in the quarter. There were 75 deals more than $100,000, and 10 were more than $1 million. Customers include Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), and Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC).

Ranadive says his firm is at the proverbial "tipping point." That is, his products are now must-haves. What's more, such technologies as Web services are making integration much easier. So, according to Ranadive, his software is becoming an easy choice for company chief information officers. It's also becoming an easier decision for investors, who boosted the stock price 9% to $8.19.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli owns none of the stocks mentioned in the article.