Fast Search & Transfer(TM) (OSEAX: FAST.OL) (FAST(TM)), the
leading developer of search technologies, today announced record
revenue results and profitable growth for the first quarter ended
March 31, 2007.
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-- Revenues for the first quarter of 2007 reached $49.2 million, an
increase of 50% as compared to $32.8 million for the first quarter
of 2006.
-- Quarter on quarter, total revenues were up $0.4 million.
-- Operating income is positive at $0.6 million for the quarter.
-- Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2007 remained strong at $8.0 million or 16%
of revenue, surpassing 2nd half 2006 levels.
-- Operating cash flow was positive in Q1 2007, improving by $9.0
million quarter on quarter and by $1.6 million year on year.
-- Cash balances remained strong at $221 million and the
company continues to be debt free.
-- Strategic customer wins with new and additional license sales
during Q1 that included Cathay Pacific, Comcast, Convera, Dresdner
Kleinwort, ISA, Millipore, Railcorp, Target, Tribune Interactive,
and others. New customers comprised wins in all major product
areas, key vertical market segments, and geographic locations.
-- New solutions launched during Q1 show strong promise in the market.
FAST AdMomentum(TM) offers media companies the unprecedented
ability to manage their online advertisements and monetize their
assets. FAST Adaptive Information Warehouse(TM) (FAST AIW(TM))
delivers powerful data cleansing and business intelligence
capabilities as the industry's first BI solution based on search.
-- The Solution Services team implemented more than 80 customer
deployments world wide in Q1. Certified FAST delivery partners
managed a large number of successful installations.
-- FAST X10 Partner Program expanded with new OEM partners Vocus,
ExLibris and disk@d Netherlands, and alliances on every major
continent with new partners in India, the Middle East, Russia,
Japan, Singapore, Korea and Australia. FAST's partner ecosystem now
includes more than 150 alliance and OEM partners, significantly
outpacing our competition.
-- FAST extended its leadership in the Media and Internet segments and
showed promising signs of success in new vertical markets such as
Financial Services, Telecoms and Mobile.
-- FAST announced its intention to acquire the RetrievalWare business
assets and IP from Convera at the end of Q1. The transaction is
expected to close in Q2.
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"Our strong revenue growth continued unabated in Q1," said Dr.
John M. Lervik, CEO and co-founder of FAST. "This growth was, in part,
at the expense of our competitors, as we gained market share. More
importantly, a significant portion of our growth was a result of our
expansion of the overall market for search technology. We continued to
partner closely with our customers and alliances to find new ways to
tackle daunting business problems. As a result, more and more
customers are using FAST to develop new business models, to monetize
their assets in new ways, or to bring new services to market. FAST
customers and partners have discovered that search is the best way to
connect people to the information, products, services and experts they
need, and are implementing accordingly."
"We have delivered yet another quarter of revenue growth in Q1.
Our core business profitability remains solid and has improved over
the levels in the second half of 2006. FAST's strong financials
position us well to fund our growth objectives, and we are on track
with our investments to further scale our business. We are also on
target with our efforts to improve our DSO performance," stated Joseph
Lacson, CFO.
Other FAST Highlights during Q1:
FAST continues to drive growth through industry-leading
innovation, in close dialogue with a strong network of innovative
customers and partners. Investment in R&D reached 14% of revenue for
the quarter.
-- FAST positioned as a leader in The Gartner Magic Quadrant(TM)
Report for Information Access.
-- In January FAST introduced the FAST Adaptive Information
Warehouse(TM) (FAST AIW(TM)), a radically new approach that
lets users capitalize on their entire universe of information
to make better informed decisions, gaining competitive
advantage.
-- In February FAST launched FAST AdMomentum(TM), a private-label
contextual advertising and monetization platform for online
media companies, retailers and telecommunications service
providers. FAST AdMomentum(TM) was developed in close
cooperation with leading online publishers to enable them to
regain control of their digital ad revenue.
FAST invested in sales and marketing to scale our business and
capitalize further on our leading platform for search driven
enterprise solutions.
-- In February, this year's FASTforward - the largest business
and technology conference on the "search-powered" enterprise
took place in San Diego, CA. An unprecedented line up of
prominent speakers and more than 80 panel discussions
attracted more than 1,000 participants from 32 countries and
400 existing and potential customer and partner organizations,
including prominent Global 500 top executives, 30 leading
industry analysts and 25 bloggers and journalists. FASTforward
'07 created a strong momentum for search-driven applications
that create new business models and revenue opportunities. For
highlights, visit www.fastforward07.com
-- FAST continues to host the discussion on how the landscape of
business is evolving in the face of rapid technological change
and innovation through the FASTforward blog, which was
initially conceived as a companion blog to FASTforward '07.
The blog, like the conference, aims to drive and deepen
conversation about how today's companies can "Innovate,
Accelerate and Dominate" and has been extended as a permanent
home to discussion about Enterprise 2.0 opportunities and
challenges.
FAST continues to succeed with its strategic M&A activities.
On March 31st, FAST signed an agreement to acquire Convera's
RetrievalWare(TM) business. Expected to be finalized in Q2, this deal
significantly expands FAST's government sector customer base, and
positions the Company well for future growth in this sector. Convera
has been very successful in penetrating large government organizations
with RetrievalWare(TM) worldwide, and has built a substantial
commercial customer base. The acquisition activity has been
progressing smoothly and to plan. RetrievalWare customers and partners
have applauded FAST's openness, FAST's commitment to support the
RetrievalWare product , suite, and the array of future options for
adding FAST's advanced search capabilities to their investment.
"We've heard from our government customers that they are looking
for innovative ways to better leverage their information assets," said
Patrick C. Condo, President and CEO of Convera. "FAST is the right
company to take government agencies to the next level. With a broad
range of complementary technologies, solutions and services, FAST is
prepared to deliver great and immediate value to our sizeable customer
base." The key RetrievalWare employees will join FAST when the final
agreement is signed, and a strategic partner has come on board to
handle the U.S. intelligence community sales and support.
"The RetrievalWare acquisition is a multi-win scenario," stated
Lervik. "The RetrievalWare customers and partners, Convera, Convera's
employees and FAST are all coming out way ahead as a result of this
transaction. We are all looking forward to the next phase."
The complete FAST 2007 First Quarter Report can be found at
http://www.fastsearch.com and on the Oslo Stock Exchange at
http://www.oslobors.no.
About FAST
FAST creates the real-time search and business intelligence
solutions that are behind the scenes at the world's best- known
companies with the most demanding information challenges. FAST's
flexible and scalable integrated technology platform and personalized
portal connects users, regardless of medium, to the relevant
information they need.
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,
Australia, the Americas, and the Middle East. For further information
about FAST, please visit www.fastsearch.com.
(C) 2007 Fast Search & Transfer ASA - Fast Search & Transfer,
FAST, Adaptive Information Warehouse, AIW, AdMomentum, Impulse and
Hubway are trademarks of Fast Search & Transfer ASA. The FAST logo,
FAST ESP, FAST InStream, FAST InPerspective, FAST ProPublish, FAST
Contextual Insight and FAST Unity are registered trademarks of Fast
Search & Transfer ASA. All rights reserved.
