text: Computer Associates International Inc said on Tuesday at its North American revenues grew 33 percent in its December quarter, cushioning the blow of a pre-announced decline in European sales.
  In a phone interview, Sanjay Kumar, CA's president and chief operating officer, said European revenues declined about 20 percent year-on-year.
  Total revenues for the fiscal third quarter ended December 31 were $1.05 billion against $1.00 billion in the December quarter of 1995.
  Also, the executive said CA had become a "big buyer" of its own stock since the company's warning in late December of a revenue shortfall sent the stock price tumbling.
  CA stock had been trading around record high levels of $67 and now is in the mid $40's.
  Kumar said the revenue problem arose from the software maker's on-going transition to a client-server focus from its traditional mainframe base.
  He said the mainframe-oriented European sales force was finding the switch to highly competitive open systems software a challenge.  
  Kumar said he told Wall Street analysts in a conference call Tuesday evening that it could take a quarter and perhaps two quarters to put its European sales back on track.
  "We clearly need the current quarter to work through these issues," he said, referring to the fiscal fourth quarter ending in March.
  "My thinking at this point is that (I would like to have) the room if needed into the first quarter," he said.
  "I told analysts that I am not doing anything short term just to grab some revenue," he added.  
  The CA executive said Italy and Spain continue to do well but France and Germany suffered the brunt of the sales downturn.
  Asia/Pacific revenue growth was "very strong" with China growing 100 percent year over year.
  Kumar said client/server revenues now account for 39 percent of CA's total with mainframe revenues making up the rest. Client/server revenues grew 43 percent year on year, he noted. "I would clearly like to see us cross the 50-50 line in 1997, but it may take until 1998," he said, referring to the split between mainframe and client/server revenues.
  In its third quarter earnings results, CA reported operating earnings of $0.75 a share, 25 percent above the December 1995 quarter's $0.60.
  That excluded a pre-announced charge of $598 million for the acquisition of Cheyenne Software.
  