Irish middleware software vendor Iona Technologies has reported a slight decrease in revenues in the first quarter of US$16.8m, down from US$17.0m in the same quarter last year. However, the company reported an increase in profits to US$13.6m, up from US$12.7m last year. Net income for the quarter was US$190K , according to the firm’s balance sheet.
In a statement this afternoon the company said that it achieved profitability in the quarter and sustained a strong cash and marketable securities position of US$56m.
The company succeeded in reducing operating expenses to US$13.6m from US$24.6m last year. However, the cost of revenue (including product and service costs) increased from US$12.7m last year to US$13.6m this year.
In a forward looking statement, Iona said it expects revenue for the second quarter of 2004 to be between US$17m and US$19m, representing approximately a 5pc to 15pc year-over-year growth. It expects total expenses, including cost of revenue and operating expenses, to be between US$17m and US$18m.
Highlights of the first quarter included the launch of its Artix 2.0 web services technology, as well as a major deal with Lockheed Martin to provide web services training to thousands of its employees.
Iona’s CEO and co-founder Chris Horn commented: “The need for companies to take full advantage of their IT investments, both past and present, is driving the adoption of Web services and service-oriented integration for large-scale, business-critical projects. Iona’s Artix is uniquely positioned to help companies accomplish this now. We are seeing that our current and prospective customers value how Artix can be a part of their strategic IT initiatives.”
Iona’s chief financial officer Dan Demmer said that this quarter’s results were well in line with expectation. “These results are solid evidence of the progress we have made, through focus and alignment of our investments, to achieve sustained performance over the long term.”
By John Kennedy
