Autonomy reports big jump in pre-tax profits

Cambridge-based business software firm Autonomy said it has seen its pre-tax profits rocket by 89 per cent for the first half of the year.

The unaudited pre-tax profit results for the six months to June were said to be up from $21.3m in the same period last year to $40.3m.

The firm, which creates software that is used to search unstructured information in databases, emails, and other sources, said strong organic growth had helped increase its six month revenue by 18 per cent compared to 2006.

Meanwhile, earnings per share rose by 75 per cent.

The firm has gone from strength-to-strength in the past six months, with a particularly active last quarter which saw Autonomy win software orders from the likes of Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Coca Cola.

It also secured deals with the governments of the UK, US, and Singapore.

Speaking about the results, Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch said: "With our strong organic growth, significant continued investment in research and development, and the recently-announced acquisition of Zantaz, Autonomy has firmly established itself as the unrivalled leader in the enterprise retrieval and discovery markets."

Earlier this month, the firm bought US document storage and retrieval company Zantaz Inc in a $375m deal.

He added that growth in the e-discovery market, particularly in the US where government regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley have forced companies to track information in their archives, was "continuing to drive the ever-increasing creation of, and demands on, unstructured information".

The full Autonomy results can be viewed here. ®