Wednesday January 19, 7:04 pm Eastern Time
Spyglass plans internal and external expansion
NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan 19 (Reuters) - Internet consultant and software provider Spyglass Inc. (NasdaqNM:SPYG - news) on Wednesday reported a smaller-than-expected loss for the fiscal first quarter, and a top executive said he was comfortable with Wall Street forecasts that the company will reach marginal profitability this year.
Chief Financial Officer Gary Vilchik told Reuters in an interview that he was comfortable with analysts' estimates that Spyglass will have revenues of $39 million to $40 million and be marginally profitable in fiscal 2000.
Vilchik also said Spyglass plans to expand externally through mergers, partnerships or joint ventures, and internally through efforts in Europe and Asia.
The company said its first-quarter revenues rose 42 percent, to $8.2 million from $5.8 million a year ago. It cited a 78 percent rise in technology licensing revenue and a 25 percent rise in professional services revenue.
Spyglass recorded an operating loss of 4 cents a share for the quarter, excluding a gain on the sale of its SurfWatch subsidiary and a one-time restructuring charge.
Analysts had expected a loss of 5 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks such data.
In the year-ago first quarter the company lost 11 cents a share.
In November Spyglass sold its SurfWatch content-filtering subsidiary to British Internet software provider JSB Software Technologies Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: JSB.L) for $17 million cash and 800,000 JSB shares.
Including a gain of $1.41 a share from the SurfWatch sale and a restructuring charge of 5 cents a share, first-quarter net income was $1.32 per share.
Vilchik told Reuters, ``What we're gearing up to do is step up our external investment. We're in a very strong position from a financial perspective, with the ability to invest externally and internally, and those are absolutely the two key markets that we are targeting.'
He said the sale of SurfWatch allows the company to focus more on software licensing and professional services, particularly in the interactive television and wireless Internet access markets.
He said Spyglass hopes to expand its presence in Asia and Europe and cultivate its experience in Internet software for television set-top boxes. ``You'll see us doing more business with cable operators as well as companies developing applications for set-top boxes,' he said.
Vilchik said Spyglass plans to release the next version of its Mosaic embedded Web browsing software in March. The new version will run more efficiently and was designed specifically for non-PC devices. |
