LBRT does better than expected,and almost DOUBLED ITS INSTALLED CUSTOMER BASE:
UPDATE 1-Liberate Technologies' Q2 loss smaller than expected
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SAN CARLOS, Calif., Dec 20 (Reuters) - Liberate Technologies (NASDAQ: LBRT), which makes software for interactive programming, on Wednesday posted second-quarter losses that were narrower than expected, after it almost doubled its installed customer base.
The San Carlos, Calif.-based company said its pro forma net loss was $6.9 million or 7 cents per share for the second quarter ended November 30, compared with a pro forma net loss of $9.8 million or 12 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were up 93 percent to $11.7 million.
An average of analyst estimates had called for a loss of 17 cents per share, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial.
"We are beginning to experience the power of our business model as deployments begin to ramp," said Mitchell Kertzman, Liberate's president and chief executive officer.
Liberate -- which makes a software platform that delivers content and services to personal digital assistants, game consoles and other devices -- also raised its forecast for the third quarter, saying it now expects revenues of $12 million to $13.5 million and pro forma per share losses of 12 to 14 cents.
For the full fiscal year ending May 31, Liberate projected revenues of $46 million to $49 million and pro forma losses of between 41 and 46 cents per share.
"As we enter calendar year 2001, deployments and associated revenue growth will be the key metric to gauge our success in that market," Kertzman said.
The company said its installed base of cumulative subscribers crossed the 700,000 mark at the end of the second quarter -- about twice what it was the prior quarter -- as the company booked two deployments.
NTL Inc. (NYSE: NLI), Britain's biggest cable group, deployed interactive television services to its customer base via Liberate TV Platform software. NTL sells digital television capability to its base of 3 million digital-ready homes.
Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) also deployed Liberate TV Platform software on low-end Motorola DCT-2000 set-top boxes to its Boston-area cable subscriber base of about 200,000 homes.
Liberate shares, which hit a high of $148-1/2 about a year ago, closed down $2-3/8 to $11. Shares were trading $1-1/4 higher in after-hours trade |
