Oslo, Norway
RECORD REVENUES AND PROFITABLE GROWTH
Record Revenues of $48.8m in Q4 2006, Yielding Growth of 57% versus Q4 2005;
Record Revenues of $162.6m for Fiscal Year 2006, Yielding Growth of 62% versus 2005
Fast Search & Transfer(TM) (OSEAX: FAST.OL) (FAST(TM)), the leading developer of search technologies, on Wednesday announced record revenue results and profitable growth for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2006.
-- Record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2006 of $48.8m, an increase of 57% compared to the fourth quarter of 2005. For the fiscal year 2006, total revenues were up 62% year-on-year to $162.2m.
-- Strong profits in fourth quarter of 2006 with Adjusted EBITDA of $7.8m and EBIT of $1.2m.
-- Continued strong balance sheet as cash balances increased by $107m during the year and totaled $232.5m at December 31, 2006.
FAST remains debt-free.
-- Strategic customer wins with new and additional license sales during Q4 that included Accoona, Bain, Brasil Telecom, CPA, Fiducia, Financial Times (FT.com), Harrods, Hoffman-La Roche, Invitrogen, Johnson & Johnson, Maktoob, MIH Web, MTS (Russia), NBC Universal, Rolls Royce, Standard & Poor's, Telstra, Thomson Scientific, the United Nations, Wells Fargo, Wolters Kluwer, and others.
-- New or expanding relationships with our global and regional systems integration partners, including Accenture, BearingPoint, Capgemini, EDS, and others.
-- New OEM relationships with Catalyst Repository Systems, Divvio, Hitachi, Zantaz, and others.
-- Continued leadership in the media and internet segments and promising signs of success in new vertical markets such as Financial Services, Telecoms and Mobile.
CEO John M. Lervik commented that "Q4 2006 was yet another record quarter for FAST, both in terms of revenue growth and new strategic customer wins. It was also a strong ending to the 2006 fiscal year, our best ever. Our business model is working: we grew our customer and partner base significantly during the year, and maintained our 99% customer satisfaction record. At the same time, in 2006 we invested in the resources necessary to sustain our rapid growth: people, systems and infrastructure. We are the leaders in our category, as well as the fastest growing search technology company. We intend to extend our lead in 2007."
"Of major significance in 2006 was the extension of our search technology beyond the traditional role of search. More and more of our major wins were achieved by helping customers pioneer new business models or tackle challenges traditionally addressed by more expensive and cumbersome approaches," added Lervik. "Search technology is continuously proving its capacity to challenge mature IT solutions and business models. FAST demonstrated that our investment in innovation puts our company at the forefront of the search megatrend, and creates new market opportunities for our technology. We have entered an exciting new era, and we have entered with little real competition."
"We once again delivered record revenues and profitable growth while significantly investing for our future. We are relentlessly looking for ways to fine-tune our business model, processes, and controls. This effort is clearly delivering results, and positions us for further success," stated CFO Joseph Lacson. "Our strong balance sheet and seasoned management team positions us well for further growth, both organically and through strategic acquisition," added Lacson.
Looking back, "2006 was an another exciting year for FAST, starting with the launch of FAST ESP(TM) 5 at our FASTforward '06 conference in February, and ending with record breaking revenues - up more than 60% from 2005. Our ESP 5 platform gained rapid adoption by our customers, and redefined Enterprise Search for the market - as evidenced by the recognition of our technology leadership from the top-ranked industry analysts. Looking forward, we continue to take market share in key markets such as media & entertainment, financial services, and telecommunications. More and more, we are viewed as the default search solution for mission critical business applications, and becoming a de facto standard for search infrastructure in medium-sized and large organizations," Lervik added.
Driving growth
On January 29, 2007, FAST launched its new search-based Business Intelligence solution, broadening and deepening the role of search technology and entering a new market with a strong potential for growth. A week later, FAST launched FAST AdMomentum(TM), providing online publishers and directories with a private-label contextual advertising platform. FAST AdMomentum puts publishers back in control of their advertising revenue, eliminating the need to share revenue with third-party services such as Google AdSense. This new platform is the result of co-operative R&D with leading online publishing customers.
The complete FAST 2006 Q4 report can be found on the Oslo Bors at http://www.oslobors.no and on the FAST IR web site at http://www.fastsearch.com.
About FAST
FAST is the leading developer of search technologies that are behind the scenes at the world's best known companies with the most demanding search problems. FAST's flexible and scalable enterprise search platform (FAST ESP) elevates the search capabilities of enterprise customers and connects people to the relevant information they seek regardless of medium. FAST's solutions are used by more than 2,600 global customers and partners, including America Online (AOL), Cardinal Health, CareerBuilder.com, CIGNA, CNET, Computer Associates, Dell, Dow Jones, EMC (Documentum), Factiva, Fidelity Investments, Financial Times, Findexa, Hitachi, IBM, LexisNexis, McGraw Hill, Merrill Lynch, The New York Times, Rakuten, Recruit, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Schibsted, Sensis, Stellent, Tenet Healthcare, Thomas Industrial Networks, T-Online, US Army, Virgilio (Telecom Italia), Vodafone, Wanadoo, and Wolters Kluwer.
FAST is headquartered in Norway and is publicly traded under the ticker symbol 'FAST' on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The FAST Group operates globally with presence in Europe, the United States, Asia Pacific, Australia, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. For further information about FAST, visit www.fastsearch.com.
(C) 2007 Fast Search & Transfer ASA - Fast Search & Transfer, FAST, FAST ESP, Contextual Insight and the FAST logo are trademarks of Fast Search & Transfer ASA. All rights reserved.
CONTACT: Fast Search & Transfer Joseph Lacson, CFO + 47 230 11 210 IR@fastsearch.com
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)