The following was posted on the Yahoo Inference Board...purports to be a Dow Jones news release.....seems funny that the company would do it like this when they have a formal release scheduled for Thursday PM followed by conference call...unless there was no interest being shown in the conference call and this was pre-released to increase the "attendance?"
Inference Says 4th-Quarter Earnings, Revenue To Exceed Expectations
Dow Jones Online News, Tuesday, February 23, 1999 at 18:39
By Don Clark, Staff Reporter
NOVATO, Calif. -(Dow Jones)- Inference Corp. will report
fourth-quarter earnings and revenue slightly above analysts' estimates,
Chief Executive Officer Charles Jepson told Dow Jones Tuesday.
The Novato, Calif company (INFR) will report fourth-quarter earnigns
of 11 to 12 cents a share, beating the estimate by one analyst surveyed
by First Call of 10 cents a share. In addition, Jepson said revenue will
be $8.7 million, beating the $8.5 million projected by analysts.
In the year-earlier period, Inference reported net income of
$112,000, or one cent a share, on sales of $7.4 million. The company is
scheduled to formally report its results on Thursday.
Inference, an artificial-intelligence pioneer founded in 1979, now
makes software used in customer support and related applications. After
going public in 1995, the company lapsed into a string of unprofitable
quarters.
Jepson, who joined the company a year ago, has been trying to mount a
comeback. He reorganized management and changed the company's selling
strategy, which originally relied on relationships with larger
front-office software companies that would include Inference's products
when they made a customer installation.
The trouble with that approach, Jepson said, is that those partners
would deeply discount Inference's software to make a sale. Pricing
plummeted.
Inference now relies on its own sales force. Jepson says average
selling prices in the latest quarter were 30% higher than the
year-earlier period.
Deep discounting "doesn't happen anymore," Jepson said. 'We've taken
control of the sales process.'
Inference's products help phone sales and service people answer
questions about product problems and make recommendations about
purchases. It also sells Internet versions of its products, so that
users can enter into an online dialogue to get answers to questions. Web
commerce was a big driver for sales in the latest quarter, Jepson said.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Companies or Securities discussed in this article:
Symbol Name
NASDAQ:INFR Inference Corp Cl A |
