Autonomy makes it 15 quarters in the black

Autonomy has announced its results for the third quarter and for the year so far, with the balance sheet clocking up a fifteenth consecutive spell in the black and beating market expectations.

The leading light in UK tech turned in revenues $13m, broadly similar to the preceding quarter, with sales in the UK and European accounting for 40 per cent of revenue, at $5.2m.

Before tax profits, however, didn't show quite so healthy results - at $12.4m, the figure is down slightly on Q3 2003, but up ten per cent on the corresponding quarter last year.

Mike Lynch, CEO at Autonomy, said in a statement that he was pleased with the results but urged a note of caution when thinking about the company's future: "We are pleased to announce that our third quarter results of 2003 results are ahead of market consensus. The end of the third quarter saw a significant recovery in activity levels across our markets, which has continued into the fourth quarter, although we believe it is premature to judge the fragility or robustness of this effect."

Leading from the front were the company's corporate compliance and call centre application products, which showed "continued uptake."

Autonomy's results for the year so far showed revenues of $37.9m, up a fraction from last year's $37.8m.