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Autonomy stays upbeat
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February 15, 2001: 11:11 a.m. ET
Software maker says it hasn't been hit by slower U.S. economic growth
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LONDON (CNN) - Autonomy Corp. mounted the barricades again on Thursday, attempting to convince investors the UK software maker is in good shape.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Lynch, who was busy last week disputing erroneous information in an investment bank research note, claimed the company is in a powerful position.
"Our balance sheet is strong, with over $137 million in cash at year-end, which leaves us well-placed to expand our leadership position and to penetrate new and existing markets worldwide," he said in a statement.
 But investors were less than impressed, sending the shares down 1.9 percent to 1,532.75 pence. Autonomy earlier tumbled almost 14 percent after the company released earnings.
Its shares recouped the bulk of their losses after Lynch spoke with stock market analysts. He blamed the switchback share price performance on confusion over the company's earnings announcement.
"There has actually been some misunderstanding of the numbers where people haven't got the comparison right," he told CNN in an interview, adding, "We actually came in at the top end of all the analysts' expectations for both revenue and pretax profit."
Adjusted net profit for the three months ended December 31 rose to $5.94 million, compared with a $1.57 million loss in the year earlier period. Revenue increased to $21.46 million, compared with $17.64 million in the fourth quarter of 1999.
In the fourth quarter, some 44 percent of sales came from the U.S., but Lynch shrugged off concerns of the impact of slower growth in that market.
The figures exclude the cost of November's listing on the London Stock Exchange and currency movements. Autonomy has been publicly traded for around two years, since listing on Easdaq, the market for fledgling European growth stocks.
Autonomy's pretax fourth quarter profit of $5.94 million was down from the $9.22 million posted in the third quarter.
The company reported a full-year pretax profit of $20.69 million, up from a loss of $4.23 million in 1999. Revenue increased to $65.42 million, from $21.982 million in the previous year.
Its average contract size in the fourth quarter rose 34 percent to $437,000.
With dual headquarters in Cambridge, England and San Francisco, Calif., Autonomy provides systems that comb electronic records to find Web, e-mail, or database information. Its clients include French network equipment maker Alcatel (PCGE), the British Broadcasting Corp., UK consumer goods firm Unilever (ULVR) and the U.S. Department of Defense.
"The situation is that we haven't seen that slowdown in the states," he told CNN.
"Autonomy is all about automation and its seems that automation is a very good story in a downturn because you reduce headcount. 
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