Capelle aan den IJssel, 18 December 2002 -- Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), a leading supplier of technology for building e-business solutions, today announced results for its fourth quarter and full fiscal year ended November 30, 2002. Revenue for the quarter increased 3 percent to $72.1 million, up from $69.7 million in the same quarter last year. Operating income was $9.2 million and represented an increase of 40 percent over the same quarter last year. Net income was $6.9 million, up 35 percent from $5.1 million in the same quarter last year. Diluted earnings per share of 19 cents represented an increase of 46 percent over the 13 cents achieved in the fourth quarter of 2001.
For the 12 months ended November 30, 2002, revenue increased 4 percent to $273 million from $264 million in 2001. Operating income increased 32 percent to $28.2 million from $21.3 million in 2001. Net income increased 17 percent to $20.6 million from $17.6 million in 2001 and diluted earnings per share increased 17 percent to 54 cents from 46 cents in 2001.
The company's revenue was positively impacted by year over year changes in exchange rates in the fourth quarter and for the full fiscal year. On a constant currency basis, revenue in the fourth quarter would have increased by 1% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2001 and revenue would have increased by 3% for the full fiscal year. During the fourth quarter, the company purchased approximately 2.2 million shares of its stock at a cost of $27.4 million. Since beginning its share buy-back program in the first quarter of 1996, the company has purchased approximately 16.9 million shares of its common stock at a cost of $166 million. The company has 9 million shares available to purchase under its current board authorized stock repurchase program. The company's cash and short-term investments at the end of the year totaled $177 million.
"Progress Software continued to grow revenue and profits in a business environment that has severely impacted many software companies," said Joseph W. Alsop, chief executive officer of Progress Software. "Our revenue increased year over year for the sixth straight quarter, and revenue from our Sonic product line nearly doubled for the year. Our partners and our products bring exceptional value to a world where customers are frustrated with costly software and services, and unresponsive vendors. We believe the pending acquisition of eXcelon will offer tremendous benefits to Sonic Software, which has established itself as the innovator and leader of the emerging Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architecture within the application integration market. Furthermore, with the launch of PeerDirect, we offer breakthrough technology for application deployment and management."
Recent Highlights
Highlights include recent adoption of PSC technology, and solutions based on PSC technology, by new customers including: Australian Reporting Systems, BMS Computer Solutions Ltd., Brommageriatriken AB, Caribbean Motors Company N.V., CIBC Trust Corporation, Cott Beverages USA, CTF Hotels, Entel Consulting Group Ltd., Firmenich, Formis Computer and CommunicationSdn Bhd, Found, Inc., Integrity Software Systems Ltd., Ivory & Ledoux Ltd., Kingston Communications (Hull) PLC, Municipal Property Assess Corp., National Chiao Tung University, NYCE Corporation, Overseas Services, PB Farradyne, Inc., Pomerantz Staffing Services, Rutges Cargo B.V., Sallie Mae, Sands Acapulco S.A., SeeRun Corporation, Sierra Design Group, Software Options Inc., Somerset Tire Service, Svensk Exportkredit AB, Texas Stainless & Heat Treating Corporation, The Credit Network, Inc., The Ryvita Company Ltd., Tuscaloosa County Courthouse and Velocity Development Group, LLC.
PSC and eXcelon Corporation (Nasdaq: EXLN) signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which Progress Software will acquire eXcelon, a leader in XML tools and data management software, in an all-cash transaction for a purchase price of $3.19 per share or approximately $24 million in the aggregate. The shareholder meeting of eXcelon shareholders to vote on this pending acquisition is scheduled for Wednesday, December 18, 2002. The acquisition is subject to the approval of eXcelon's stockholders.
http://www.progress.com/releases/2002/102102.htm
Sonic Software announced the availability of SonicXQ(TM) 1.5. The SonicXQ enterprise service bus (ESB) is the only enterprise-class integration infrastructure for distributed business environments and computing models.
http://www.sonicsoftware.com/releases/2002/091602.htm
PSC announced the formation of a new subsidiary company, PeerDirect Corporation, whose products offer companies alternatives to centralized databases, enabling distributed but connected enterprises. PeerDirect(TM) products allow for centralized management but decentralized application deployment and create truly distributed enterprises by replicating, distributing and synchronizing corporate data across multiple locations.
http://www.progress.com/releases/2002/100802b.htm
The Progress Company announced support for the Microsoft(R) .NET framework, the next milestone in the Progress(R) OpenEdge roadmap for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This allows developers to take advantage of the OpenEdge(TM) platform's powerful business processing technology, while providing quick and easy integration with the .NET framework. Progress partner Epicor Software is already working to move its 6,000 manufacturing customers to the blended platform.
http://www.progress.com/releases/2002/111802a.htm
http://www.progress.com/releases/2002/111802.htm
http://www.progress.com/releases/2002/060302.htm
PSC's conference call to discuss its fourth quarter results will be Webcast via CCBN on the company's Web site, located at http://www.progress.com/investors. An archived version of the conference call will be available for replay.
About Progress Software Corporation
Founded in 1981, Progress Software Corporation, or PSC (Nasdaq: PRGS) is the parent organizationfor the Progress Company operating unit, Sonic Software Corporation, NuSphere Corporation, and PeerDirect Corporation. PSC provides industry-leading technologies for all aspects of e-business development, deployment, integration and management. Progress Software Corporation is headquartered in Bedford, MA, and can be reached on the Web at http://www.progress.com.
For more information:
Progress Software – Janine Roelofs Leads United – Jacqueline Schakenraad
Tel.: +31 10 235 11 83 Tel.: +32 3 466 01 88
E-mail: jre@progress.com E-mail: jacqueline.schakenraad@leadsunited.com