Autonomy reports revenue growth

Autonomy's revenue was up 51 per cent

Infrastructure software firm Autonomy announced a 51 per cent revenue growth for the third quarter of 2009 and said it is optimistic about its performance for the rest of the financial year.

Revenue at the company reached $191.6m for the period, with adjusted pre-tax profit of $64.3m, up 20 per cent on the same quarter last year. According to Autonomy, the numbers represent the highest third quarter proceeds and profits in its history.

According to the firm, the figures were due to strong organic growth and the integration of content management systems developer Interwoven, acquired in January this year.

However, despite the positive revenue growth, gross margins fell to 86 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 versus 92 per cent in the third quarter of 2008 - Autonomy said: "the unexpected demand for our new product programs had a small depressing effect on gross margins. [However] we don't expect this to be a trend."

The firm’s overall product demand over the third quarter has been healthy, with several new and repeat licenses with multiple government, defence and intelligence agencies worldwide and businesses such as Alstom, Arcelor Mittal, BBC, Citi and Ikea.

"We delivered strong growth despite the usual seasonality and challenging comparatives against the strong performance in Q3 2008", Autonomy’s chief executive Mike Lynch said in statement.

"These results give us confidence in maintaining our view of the full year," he added.