Citrix Systems reported strong earnings this week, but the company plans to increase acquisitions in the coming year and to reorganize its sales force, which prompted the company to issue a lackluster forecast for the coming year.

Revenue across the board saw a steep increase, with the company reporting net revenues of $619.4 million in the quarter, a 17 percent increase from the $530 million it reported a year ago. GAAP net income was $108.7 million, 58 cent per share, up from $94.4 million, 49 cents per share, a year ago. The 66 cents quarterly adjusted EPS beat Wall Street estimated of 65 cents.

"Greater diversity in our products and channel, combined with a compelling vision, is driving more C-level engagement as well as more up-sell and cross-sell opportunities," said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer for Citrix. "As a result, we are seeing more strategic deals, more use of our products as an end-to-end system, and deeper engagement with our customers through services."

Citrix has worked to roll out more robust mobile, cloud and desktop solutions, and it has begun to pay off.

For the year, Citrix reported record revenue of $2.2 billion. Its desktop solution revenue accounted for $1.3 billion of that, 12.5 percent higher than a year ago, and included 14 percent y-o-y growth in the fourth quarter, with revenue of $369 million. Data center and cloud solutions revenue increased 29.1 percent to $385.5 million, online services revenue rose 18.6 percent to $427.7 million and revenue from other products increase 46.4 percent to $114.3 million.

Citrix said revenue increased in the America's region by 16 percent, rose in the EMEA region by 12 percent and increased in the Pacific region by 37 percent.

For 2012, Citrix said revenue should be in the range of $2.49 billion to $2.51 billion; GAAP diluted earnings per share is targeted to be in the range of $1.88 to $1.97.

For the first quarter, expect revenue to be in the range of $555 million to $565 million with GAAP diluted earnings per share in the range of 30-31 cents.

The thin first quarter results, said CFO David Henshall, come from the company's plans to look to make acquisitions, but those deals should become accretive later in the year.