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 The uncertainty spread into the broader industry, sending the
tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index down 3.25 percent to 4363.144.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.29 percent to
16,204.97.
Business-analytics company Tableau Software <DATA.N> shed half its
market value a day after cutting its full-year earnings guidance to
between 22 cents and 35 cents a share, around half the 57 cents
analysts had expected. Tableau shares closed down 49.4 percent at
$41.33.
The company had cut its full-year 2016 revenue forecast to $830
million to $850 million from prior guidance of $845 million to $865
million. And Tableau's fourth-quarter revenue of $202.8 million only
narrowly beat analyst expectations of $200.8 million.
"When you get a company that barely beats that has (previously) been
beating by a longshot, people are going to be scratching their heads
a little bit," said Brian White, analyst at Drexel Hamilton. "If
that guy can’t show much upside, what does that mean for the rest of
the sector?"
Tableau's results came in tandem with poor performance from business
network LinkedIn, which shocked Wall Street with a revenue forecast
that fell far short of expectations. Its shares plunged 44 percent
on Friday, exacerbating the rout in business-services companies.
"They're a proxy for enterprise spend," said Daniel Ives, an analyst
at FBR, about LinkedIn.
Investors wondered whether enterprise customers will be willing to
splurge on trends like big-data analytics and cloud computing. Those
trends, hyped heavily over the years by analysts and the companies
themselves, had previously driven big share-price gains.
"If you’re uncertain how much is something worth, you’re going to
give the lowest bargain-basement price," said analyst Katherine
Egbert at Piper Jaffray.
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Companies that sell cloud-based software, meaning Internet-delivered
software bought on a metered basis rather than paid for upfront,
also saw particularly sharp declines.
Business-software companies Salesforce.com <CRM.N> and Workday
<WDAY.N> fell more than 10 percent each. Salesforce's 13.6 percent
drop was its worst one-day loss since October 2008.
Shares of Splunk Inc <SPLK.O>, a data analytics software maker,
closed down 23 percent at $36.23.
Companies that help businesses update their information-technology
infrastructure also slumped. Microsoft dropped 3.5 percent to
$50.16, while Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> fell 6.4 percent to $502.13.
Others taking hits included Qlik Technologies <QLIK.O>, Cornerstone
OnDemand <CSOD.O>, Hortonworks <HDP.O> and Teradata <TDC.N>, which
dropped between 8 and 17 percent.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride, Lance Tupper and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed;
Editing by Dan Grebler and Meredith Mazzilli)
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