White Pine Announces Second Quarter Results -- Revenue Increases 54% -- Drastic Decrease in Cash Burn Rate
July 27, 1999 04:05 PM
NASHUA, N.H., July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- White Pine Software, Inc. WPNE today announced results for the second quarter ended July 2, 1999.
White Pine reported a 54% increase in net revenue for the quarter of $2.6 million, and a net loss of $1.3 million, or $0.12 per share. This compares to net revenue of $1.7 million and a net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.28 per share, in the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
For the six months ended July 2, 1999, the Company reported $5.1 million in net revenue and a net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.25 per share. This compares with $3.7 million in net revenue and a net loss of $4.5 million, or $0.49 per share, in the first half of 1998.
Revenue growth in the quarter was due primarily to increased videoconferencing software server sales, which increased 62% year over year, and 18% over the preceding quarter. Videoconferencing client revenues increased 37% year over year. Total sales were lead by strong growth in the Americas, increasing 67% year over year. Sales in Europe increased by 45%, with sales in the Pacific Rim declining by 12% year over year. The Company signed on a new Pacific Rim distributor in the quarter, which is expected to help turn this decline around.
The Company closed the quarter with $4.0 million in cash, representing a decrease in cash of approximately $570,000. This compares with a cash decline of $2.0 million in the same quarter of the prior year, and $1.8 million in the first quarter of 1999. This marks a drastic decrease in the Company's cash burn rate quarter to quarter.
In tandem with a solid financial turnaround, the Company scored several significant wins in the quarter. Continuing to foster its lead in technological innovation, the Company released MeetingPoint 4.0 in the quarter, marking the first time streaming media and live media were available as a total integrated solution. This key development opens up a world of possibilities for enterprises, educators, and entrepreneurs wishing to expand the reach of their live conferences by broadcasting them to a larger populace. In addition, MeetingPoint 4.0 incorporates continuous presence, allowing non-White Pine H.323 videoconferencing clients to receive four live video feeds. Currently these users only receive one live video feed.
"We are extremely excited about the momentum the Company is gathering," stated Killko Caballero, the Company's CEO and president. "A year ago at this time, we recognized that we had the best products, but the market was undeveloped and immature. Our financials were weak and our customer base was comprised largely of small, experimental installations. We have since garnered credibility with a growing and satisfied customer base and their success stories with innovative and effective applications. We are reaching into new markets, led by our strong brand name, and bolstered by testimonials. Our technology continues to set us apart from the fold. Our recent wins with Belgacom Skynet, OneNet and GTE Government Systems against competing solutions confirm this. As we move forward, we will continue to stimulate revenue growth and a constantly widening customer base by offering the best solutions and performance available on the market."
"We are meeting all objectives we have set for ourselves," added Christine Cox, the Company's CFO and vice president of finance. "We continue to demonstrate consecutive quarterly revenue growth, and are seeing more and more customers expand their White Pine product testbeds into enterprise-wide deployments. This should continue to translate into revenue growth for the Company. We have been very effectively managing expenses for a year now, and combined with revenue growth, we are getting the cash burn rate under control. Cash declined only $570,000 in the second quarter, which is considerably lower than the last four consecutive quarters. This is in line with our expectations of achieving profitability by year end."
The maturing market combined with MeetingPoint's superior performance versus the competition, have enabled the Company to secure several major accounts during the second quarter.
-- GTE Government Systems chose MeetingPoint to fulfill its major U.S. Army contract for IP-based group videoconferencing. The product's stability, performance and scalability elevated it above competing products that were being considered.
-- White Pine became visitalk.com's IP conferencing solution of choice on which to deploy its enhanced communications directory services. White Pine's highly acclaimed CU-SeeMe client and its millions-wide user base are the cornerstone to the White Pine-visitalk.com partnership, centered on facilitating communications on the Internet.
-- The Company also saw progress with its Internet Service Provider focus in the quarter. Belgacom Skynet, Belgium's leading Internet Service Provider, has made videoconferencing services available to its customers which are powered by White Pine's MeetingPoint software. Belgacom Skynet, which provides unlimited fast Internet access for the corporate and consumer markets in Belgium, unveiled plans for VisiaNET, an integrated desktop videoconferencing service available to Belgacom Internet customers. VisiaNET allows business users to conference and collaborate with real-time audio, video, data, and application sharing, and allows consumer customers to participate in live videochat.
-- OneNet, Oklahoma's telecommunications and information network for education and government, made its second major purchase of MeetingPoint in the second quarter, continuing to deploy it as the server of choice for IP-based videoconferencing. OneNet, which is operated by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in cooperation with the Office of State Finance, is deploying hundreds of MeetingPoint ports throughout its network for H.323 conferencing and distance learning applications. This deployment is part of a state-wide strategic initiative for technology in education. Again, MeetingPoint's superior scalability, performance, and continuous presence capabilities beat out the competition in the quest for the OneNet deployment.
In related news, White Pine further supported its commitment to multiple platforms as well as the Internet Service Provider market by announcing its intentions to support the Linux operating system for MeetingPoint. White Pine expects to start shipping MeetingPoint for Linux by September. As a Developer Partner with Red Hat, Inc., the market leading Linux developer and service provider, White Pine's software-based server solution is the logical choice to provide the first IP conferencing server solution to support Linux. Other videoconferencing suppliers operate on proprietary hardware platforms, making future Linux support problematic. Linux's popularity continues to grow, thanks to its robustness and superior performance; and White Pine's commitment to open standards and multiple platforms enable it to maintain its unique position in platform support. MeetingPoint for Linux joins the existing platforms of Microsoft NT and Sun Solaris.
With continued concentration on extending the Company's geographical reach, White Pine announced its partnership with Tomen Electronics as its master distributor in Japan. Tomen's U.S.$480 million business in supplying electronic components and computer equipment, as well as importing, exporting and distributing computer software and services, gives White Pine an edge in the rapidly developing Japanese multimedia IP market.
The Company also unveiled CU-SeeMeWorld in the quarter, the world's first Internet visual communications portal. As the site is continuously developed to provide leading edge technology in multimedia conferencing to the masses, CU-SeeMeWorld is targeted to become the showcase of integrated communications across the Internet. In dramatic execution of its purpose and scope, the site hosted online video chats during the Kosovo conflict, enabling individuals across the globe to see and communicate with one another their opinions and concerns about this internationally-reaching crisis. Dissolving the barriers of space and time, CU-SeeMeWorld will continue to prove how video communications can be as easy as a phone call, but drastically more economical and far more personal.
About White Pine Software, Inc.
White Pine Software develops, markets and supports multi-platform browser-based internetworking software that facilitates worldwide video and audio communication and data collaboration across the Internet, intranets, extranets and other networks that use the Internet Protocol. White Pine's videoconferencing software products, CU-SeeMe Pro and MeetingPoint, create a client-server solution that allows users to participate in real-time, multi-point video, audio and data conferences over the Internet and intranets. White Pine's ClassPoint provides a complete solution for corporate training and distance learning. White Pine Software can be found on the World Wide Web at wpine.com .
CU-SeeMe has won a number of industry awards, including the CTI 1998 "Editors' Choice Award" and "Best of 1997 Award," PC Computing's 1997 "5-Star Editor's Choice Award, Web Conferencing," Net Guide Magazine's 1997 "Best Internet Conferencing Award," Popular Science Magazine's "Best of What's New Award," New Media Magazine's "1996 Hyper Award for Best Conferencing Software" and Byte Magazine's "Best of PC Expo '96 Winner."
MeetingPoint is the recipient of the Internet Telephony 1998 "Product of the Year" award, CTI's "Product of the Year Award" in 1998 and 1997, and BYTE Magazine's "Best of PC Expo '97" Award.
ClassPoint won a Portfolio Award by Media & Methods magazine in its May/June 1999 issue.
The fourth, seventh, eighth, and last three paragraphs of this press release contain language constituting forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, market demand and competition, timely shipment, and product viability. Other risks are included in the Company's Form 10-KSB, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
