THE IRISH operations of US software company VMware booked a pretax profit of $9.28 million (€6.77 million) on revenues of $884.8 million in 2008, according to accounts just filed with the Companies Registration Office.

VMware established a technical support centre in Ballincollig, Co Cork, in 2005 and in 2007 announced a major expansion, creating an additional 370 jobs.

According to the accounts, VMware International Ltd had an average of 221 staff during 2008, up from 117 the previous year.

VMware, which provides virtualisation software that enables businesses to use their IT resources more efficiently, was a wholly owned subsidiary of data storage company EMC, which employs more than 1,600 people in Ireland.

In August 2007, EMC sold off 10 per cent of VMware, raising almost $11 billion for its parent in one of the most successful stock-market debuts of that year.

According to the accounts, VMware International has a licence to sell, market and support VMware’s products in all jurisdictions outside the US.

At the end of 2008, it owned VMware subsidiaries in Britain, Australia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, India, Singapore, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland.

Turnover grew by 56.5 per cent in 2008 as the company expanded into new international markets.

The increase in sales was accompanied by a 65 per cent jump in the cost of sales to $545.5 million.

As a result, pretax profits fell from $13.2 million in 2007 to $9.3 million a year later. VMware International had a total tax charge of $3.2 million for the year, which included $2.5 million of Irish corporation tax.

At $615.4 million, the bulk of sales came from Europe, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at $211.8 million.

A spokeswoman for VMware said it had a policy of not commenting on the accounts of its corporate subsidiaries.

Last month VMware reported global revenues for the full-year 2009 of $2 billion, an increase of 8 per cent from 2008.

However, pretax profit came in at $223 million, down from $319 million the previous year.