Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

"Comfortable with the outlook: Group CEO, Dr Mike Lynch

In a traditionally weaker quarter for the company - Q3 - Autonomy announced record quarterly revenue at $127.1 million (£73m), up 42% from Q3 2007 and similarly outperforming profits.

Consensus forecasts for profit before tax of $44.6m (£25.6m) and profit after tax of $32.6m (£18.7m) were put in the shade with actual figures of $53.8m (£30.9m) and $37.5m (£21.5m) respectively.

Group CEO Dr Mike Lynch said: "The strength in trading was such that the usual Q3 seasonal weakness was not evident, resulting in exceptional quarter-on-quarter revenue, profit and operating margin growth.

"The business delivered accelerating organic growth during the third quarter, with significant regulatory-driven demand across all sectors, whilst maintaining the backlog at record levels. Financial performance during the quarter was consistently strong with record cash collection from our blue chip customer base and cash conversion over 100%."

Licence revenues were up 50% from organic growth, while operating margins reached a record 42%, up from 27% in the same quarter last year.

Repeat business from existing customers accounted for approximately 44% of revenue for the quarter.

Lynch added: "Despite conservative analysis of the current macro environment, the fact that our fundamental market dynamics and our pipeline going into the remainder of the year remain strong, leads us to be comfortable with the outlook."

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