Autonomy defies economic gloom with record quarter

Autonomy continues to post strong growth

British software giant Autonomy defied the financial gloom today by announcing record first quarter profits and revenues.

The firm said its revenues for Q1 2009 stood at $129.8m (£89.1m), up 23 per cent from $105.1m (£72.2m) for the same period last year, while adjusted pretax profit for the quarter rose to $58.18m (£40m) compared with $31.14m (£21.4m) in Q1 2008.

Adjusted net profit for the period was $40.2m (£27.6m), compared with $21.7m (£14.9m) for the first quarter of 2008.

During the quarter, Autonomy won several more big-name customers, including Barclaycard, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America, as well as completing the $775m (£533m) acquisition of content management firm Interwoven.

Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch said that the integration of Interwoven had exceeded all expectations and that the firm remains cautiously optimistic about the future, predicting strong organic growth.

"Our pipeline remains strong and our backlog remains stable," he added.

"We continue to innovate through R&D, an example of which is our ICE product, which is targeted at compliance applications, such as protecting personal information in enterprises and call centres."