Certicom Announces Q3 FY04 Results

In the second quarter of fiscal 2004, Certicom reported revenues of $27.6 million, which included $24.9 million in revenue recognized from the companys $25-million contract with the U.S. governments National Security Agency (NSA) for the licensing of Certicoms intellectual property (IP), which was announced in October 2003. Second quarter revenues from Certicoms core business, which excluded revenue from the NSA licensing agreement, were $2.7 million. Third Quarter Financial Review Operating expenses, including cost of sales and excluding depreciation and amortization, were $3.0 million compared with operating expenses of $3.2 million in the same period last year, representing a 5% improvement. Operating expenses (which exclude costs associated with the NSA agreement of $1.2 million) in the second quarter of fiscal 2004 were $2.7 million. The increase in third quarter expenses from the second quarter reflects the impact of currency fluctuations and investment in the companys evolving IP business. However, third quarter expenses were in line with previously provided guidance for the period of $2.9 million to $3.2 million. The company posted an EBITDA loss of $0.9 million, compared with a loss of $1.1 million in the third quarter last year. In the second quarter of fiscal 2004, excluding the revenue gain and incremental expenses triggered by the NSA contract, the companys EBITDA loss from its business was $53,000. The net loss on a GAAP basis for the quarter was $1.8 million, or $0.05 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss in the same period last year of $174,000, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share. In the second quarter of fiscal 2004 the company posted net income on a GAAP basis of $22.3 million, or $0.70 per share (basic) and $0.63 per diluted share, reflecting the contribution from the NSA agreement. Nine-Month Financial Review For the first nine months of fiscal 2004, Certicom reported revenues of $31.9 million, which include $24.9 million in revenue recognized from the companys NSA licensing contract. Revenues, which exclude revenue from the NSA contract, were $7.0 million, down 12% from $8.0 million in the same period last year. Operating expenses, which exclude costs associated with the NSA contract of $1.2 million, decreased 17% to $8.6 million from $10.4 million a year ago. The EBITDA loss was $1.6 million for the period, compared with $2.4 million in the same period last year, which represents an improvement of 34%. The company posted net income on a GAAP basis of $18.9 million, or $0.56 per share (basic) and $0.53 per diluted share for the first nine months of fiscal 2004, compared with a net loss of $2.9 million, or $0.09 per basic and diluted share in the same period last year. Cash totaled $38.5 million at quarter end. Cash at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2004 was $5.3 million. During the quarter, Certicom received a payment of $25 million as a result of the NSA contract. Third Quarter Operational Highlights - Signed a total of five new customer contracts - Announced that Motorola has embedded movianVPN into its A760 smartphone. This is the first time this leading global handset maker has embedded virtual private network (VPN) security into its handsets, and reflects Motorolas strategy to provide enterprises with strong, efficient security that is transparent to end users. Under the terms of the agreement, revenue for Certicom will be generated as the movianVPN application is activated by enterprise customers. - Announced that Expertcity, a leading provider of managed real-time web-based remote-access and customer-support technologies, is using Security Builder Crypto and Security Builder SSL developer toolkits to embed ECC security into its next generation technologies. - Announced that Security Builder GSE, Certicoms core developer toolkit f