SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL) offers more than 6,000 e-learning courses. Its more than 3,000 customers include heavyweights like IBM (NYSE: IBM), Hilton (NYSE: HLT), and Merck (NYSE: MRK). And like many other tech companies, SkillSoft's shares have rallied since early August, going from $7.43 to $9.26. In fact, on news of the company's fiscal second-quarter report, the stock price surged nearly 14% on Friday.
SkillSoft's Q2 revenue had increased 28% to $71.5 million. As expected, there was an $8.5 million charge for merger expenses, which should continue for the next four quarters. Despite this, SkillSoft was still able to post a net income of $12.4 million, or $0.11 per share, which is up from $4.8 million, or $0.05 per share, in the same period a year ago. Adding things up, SkillSoft projects full-year revenue of $272 million to $280 million with net income of $20.5 million to $23 million, or $0.19 to $0.21 per share.
Over the past few years, SkillSoft has made a variety of acquisitions; its latest megadeal in May was the purchase of NETg for $270 million. Besides picking up about 1,000 new courses, SkillSoft has an opportunity to cross-sell into NETg's customer base.
SkillSoft understands the complexities of major deals. The company accomplished a big merger with SmartForce back in 2002. As a result, SkillSoft is wasting little time with integrating NETg. For example, the company sold NETg's FinancialCampus product to SmartPros (AMEX: PED) for an undisclosed amount. We can expect to see several other divestitures in the coming months.
While the NETg deal makes sense, SkillSoft has much work ahead -- product rationalization, cost cutting, and transitioning customers. In light of these complexities, it might take a couple more quarters to get traction. There's probably no need for Foolish investors to hurry into the stock.
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