Middleware developer BEA Systems revealed a Q1 misfire today, warning investors it would miss its targets because of falling license sales.

"This quarter we saw a difficult selling environment, particularly in the Americas, and several large deals slipped out of the quarter," said chairman Alfred Chuang.

Total revenues of between $342m and $347m are expected, and sales of software licenses should come in at between $111m and $116m.

The news continues a run of poor form at the firm. In November shares slid amid Wall Street collywobbles over the faltering license growth versus Oracle and IBM, and global sales chief Tom Ashburn jumped ship in February.

The firm is overhauling its sales structure, Chuang said the change would be "positive for BEA in the long run". Aqualogic had another decent quarter, the firm pleaded.

The gory details will be fully exposed when BEA realeases final Q1 results on 16 May.®