OpenText Corp. began its current first quarter by chalking up $453.8 million in revenue (all numbers $U.S,), an eight per cent increase over the previous quarter and almost 40 per cent up over the same three month period a year ago. Net income was $64 million.

“We delivered the strongest first quarter results in the history of OpenText,” said chief executive Mark Barrenechea in a statement , “despite a toughening economy.”

The Waterloo, Ont., based company which makes enterprise content management software solutions, said the quarter ending Sept. 30 saw three licence transactions over $1 million, and nine deals between $1 million and $500,000. That was fewer than the 16 deals over $1 million signed in the quarter before.

In a note to investors Kris Thompson of National Bank Financial wrote that revenue was relatively weak in the last quarter, the second September quarter with a miss in projected licence sales. Management said that customer caution increased in the last quarter.

Still, he pointed out that the company existing customers account for three-quarters of its licence revenue for the third consecutive quarter, which coincides with new product launches. That’s an indication research and development is paying off, Thompson said.

Next month it holds its annual Enterprise World user conference, where its next-generation cloud suite will be released as well as future plans for what it calls the Blue Carbon project.