AUTONOMY, THE Cambridge software company founded and headed up by Irishman Dr Mike Lynch, has released a bullish trading statement for its first quarter predicting revenues of $128-$130 million (€97.3-€98.8 million), compared to average analyst expectations of $126 million.
In a statement released to the London Stock Exchange Autonomy said its adjusted earnings per share “is expected to be significantly ahead of analyst consensus estimates of 15 cents”.
Revenues at Autonomy, which was founded by Dr Lynch in 1996 based on research he conducted at Cambridge University, were boosted by the contribution of US content management firm Interwoven which Autonomy acquired for $775 million last January.
“We are very pleased with these results, which we’ve achieved in a quarter during which we announced and completed a major acquisition and [have] seen significant economic uncertainty,” said Dr Lynch. “The Autonomy business outperformed estimates and the Interwoven business operated for the stub period as expected.”
Autonomy’s software enables users to search and understand patterns in so-called “unstructured data” contained in documents, e-mails, web pages, phone conversations or videos.
“We continue to believe unstructured data remains decoupled from broader IT spending and the macro uncertainty owing to secular and regulatory factors,” analysts in Goldman Sachs said.
The company sells its software primarily to large corporations, law firms and federal agencies including Boeing, Coca Cola, Deutsche Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, Nasa, Nestlé and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Autonomy announced yesterday that it had entered into a “significant licence agreement” with T-Mobile, one of the largest mobile companies in the world with 86 million customers.
A native of Tipperary, Dr Lynch studied at Cambridge and lives in Britain.
Autonomy shares closed at £13.37 in London last night and are up over 40 per cent this year. Dr Lynch holds an 8.4 per cent stake in Autonomy which has a market capitalisation of £3.1 billion.
