the contracts are eligible for renewal, amounts shown as support deferred revenue in our supplemental disclosure related to certain charges and gains (see below) are not necessarily indicative of revenue improvements we will achieve upon contract renewal to the extent customers do not renew.

 

Constant Currency Presentation

 

We compare the percent change in the results from one period to another period in this annual report using constant currency disclosure. We present constant currency information to provide a framework for assessing how our underlying businesses performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. To present this information, current and comparative prior period results for entities reporting in currencies other than U.S. Dollars are converted into U.S. Dollars at the exchange rate in effect on May 31, 2007, which was the last day of our prior fiscal year, rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods. For example, if an entity reporting in Euros had revenues of 1.0 million Euros from products sold on May 31, 2008 and May 31, 2007, our financial statements would reflect revenues of $1.57 million in fiscal 2008 (using 1.57 as the exchange rate) and $1.35 million in fiscal 2007 (using 1.35 as the exchange rate). The constant currency presentation would translate the fiscal 2008 results using the fiscal 2007 exchange rate and indicate, in this example, no change in revenues during the period. In each of the tables below, we present the percent change based on actual results as reported and based on constant currency.

 

Total Revenues and Operating Expenses

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007:   Total revenues increased in fiscal 2008 due to increased demand for our products and services offerings and incremental revenues from our acquisitions. The growth in our total revenues was positively affected by foreign currency rate fluctuations of 6 percentage points in fiscal 2008 due to the weakening of the U.S. Dollar relative to other major international currencies. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, new software license revenues contributed 38% to the growth in total revenues, software license updates and product support revenues contributed 45% and services revenues contributed 17%. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, the Americas contributed 50% to the increase in total revenues, EMEA contributed 37% and Asia Pacific contributed 13%.

 

Total operating expenses were adversely affected by foreign currency rate fluctuations of 4 percentage points. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, the increase in operating expenses is primarily due to higher salary and employee benefits associated with increased headcount levels (primarily resulting from our fiscal 2007 acquisitions, Agile in the first quarter of fiscal 2008 and, to a lesser extent, BEA in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008), as well as higher commissions and bonuses associated with increased revenues, earnings and headcount levels. In addition, operating expenses also increased in fiscal 2008 due to higher expenses from the amortization of intangible assets and